Young readers might enjoy these slight stories about kids helping animals, but overall, Animal Rescue Friends is bland. It’s written by Gina Loveless and Meika Hashimoto and illustrated by Genevieve Kote. Maddie finds a lost dog in the park and takes it home. Since her apartment building doesn’t allow pets, she has to take it to Animal Rescue Friends. She starts volunteering as a way to keep seeing the animal. She and another volunteer fight, which leads to a horse […]

It surprised me how much I enjoyed reading Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels Book Two. I appreciated the idea of Enola Holmes previously — I liked the movie well enough, although I thought it would have been the same film if you’d changed her name — but it didn’t engage me. Intellectually, I was glad that this kind of character existed for a younger audience, although I had some quibbles about the premise that kept me from enjoying it myself. […]

I feel like a broken record when I talk about Phoebe and Her Unicorn, because I love every book, and it always amazes me that such a long-running comic strip stays so fresh and insightful. That’s a real testament to Dana Simpson’s skills. That’s a wonderful thing, particularly at this time of year. I just read Unicorn Selfies, the fifteenth book (!) in the series. (There’s been another since then, Unicornado, that came out in October. I am behind, as […]

The comic strip Heart of the City, created by Mark Tatulli, debuted in 1998. In 2020, the strip was passed to Steenz, and the little girl named Heart went to middle school. This volume, Heart Takes the Stage, is the first collection of Steenz’s strips. I was curious to read the collection because I’d never heard of the comic (as I stopped reading the newspaper several years ago), and I liked Steenz’s work on Archival Quality. Plus, the idea of […]

For a comic strip on its fourteenth volume (as this one is), it’s amazing to me how good Unicorn Playlist still is. Settling down with a new Phoebe and Her Unicorn book means a satisfying read. The familiar characters — unusual young woman Phoebe, her magical best friend Marigold the unicorn, her frenemy Dakota, and her goblin minions — have challenges, but they make it through with humor and good will as illustrated by Dana Simpson. This particular volume felt […]

The familiar idea of an inventive family —- similar to the Fantastic Four -— having space adventures is told with heart and charm in Bright Family. It’s written by Matthew Cody with Carol Klio Burrell and illustrated by Derick Brooks. Nia works hard at her academic accomplishments, but her classmates assume her smart, famous parents help her out. Her younger brother Jayden is imaginative but bored at school and underachieving. The parents are busy doing amazing things, which means they’re […]

Oddball: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection is the fourth book — after Adulthood Is a Myth, Big Mushy Happy Lump, and Herding Cats — for these autobio/observational webcomics by Sarah Andersen. It was my favorite yet, perhaps because I’d already seen some of the comics online and loved them. I’m a particular fan of how Andersen captures fandom behavior in ways I’ve seen. She’s also very good at showing cats (which are from hell) and introverted behavior (and yet friendship). I […]

Cathy Guisewite is back cartooning! Scenes From Isolation is a collection of single-panel cartoons she originally put on Instagram capturing frustrations and annoyances during pandemic quarantine. As with any book of this type, some of the recurring themes, particularly the compulsive baking and germophobia, I didn’t relate to at all. Some of the other images, though — especially unhealthy eating, too much online shopping, and having trouble focusing — perfectly captured my feelings. Readers of her previous comic strip, Cathy, […]