This episode will end up being a bit shorter than all the previous episodes for a couple reasons. One, I need to write the reviews a lot closer to when I read the books. Two, I have less to review due to a few weekdays without independent reading time in my classroom – aka a federal holiday, a sick day, and a test day.
I now have read all but one or two of this companion series. All of them follow the same format that I noted in the first book that I read of the series with one perspective told in typical comic style panels and the other told as primarily narrative with frequent illustrations. In my opinion, none of these three did it as well as the first one that I read, including the one that launched the series, invisible emmie. When the reveal came at the end of that one, the alternating perspectives made so much sense but the reading experience was quite jarring. Additionally another one of them (I cannot remember which) had two different perspective that did not ever really come together although they do interact briefly towards the end.
While I always appreciate graphic memoirs (and memoirs in general) this one had a ratio of text to image that was too heavy on the text side, so much so that I would likely not shelve this on the graphic novel shelf in my classroom. That aside, I think this was. fascinating look at a time now considered history (although in my own lifetime which feels weird) from a unique perspective. I probably still will add this to my classroom
library because reading other people’s stories helps build empathy.
I loved this book so much! This is yet another installment of the Comix Kids subscription that hit it out of the park. The main character, Reuben, has a corgi that he loves, Mr. Muffins, who does not appear to be the brightest, really does not want to do his homework. While procrastinating at the park with Mr. Muffins, an alien light spirit chooses the adorable corgi as its host and launches Reuben and Mr. Muffins into a battle to save
the universe, which also happens to get him out of doing his homework. This was such a fun, heartwarming read!
After the high of the previous book, this one fell flat. I never really felt able to connect with the characters and the world. It was almost like the author created a world and plot far too complicated to cram into the confines that a graphic novel inherently provides. It also read like this first book dropped the reader into an already established world, expecting the readers to just understand everything. I will not add this
one to the classroom library or continue in the series.
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