Zig and Wikki, in Something Ate My Homework, and Benny & Penny, in The Toy Breaker

Toon Books are among the loveliest early readers I know off. These graphic novels for the very young reader are, in general, smart, funny, and engaging, and I just had the pleasure of reading two recent titles.

Zig and Wikki, in Something Ate My Homework (by Nadja Spigleman and Trade Loeffler) tells of two alien kids who take a wrong turn in their space ship, and find themselves on earth. Zig had been hoping to arrive at his grandmother's house, where he planned to snag on of her puffle pups (his homework assignment, which is already late, was to find a class pet). Perhaps, think Zig and Wikki, Earth will have something to offer...but can two small aliens capture a fly? or a dragonfly? or a toad? Definitely Not a raccoon...

Interspersed with tidbits of nature lore (I didn't know that toads ate their own skins) it's a fun alien adventure that ends happily...(sample pages here)

Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker (by Geoffrey Hayes) brings back the engaging mouse siblings for another backyard tale. When Cousin Bo comes over, Benny and Penny hurry to hide their toys, and, even more importantly, their treasure map. Because Cousin Bo is a Toy Breaker! But with Bo around, how can Benny and Penny find the loot? And will Penny's poor Monkey, ripped by the careless paws of Bo, recover?

When Bo gets into trouble of his own, he (somewhat miraculously) becomes a nicer mouse, and all ends well. A pleasant story of the perils of group play. (sample pages here)

But, although these are both books that I enthusiastically placed in the eager hands of my six year old, and he enjoyed them a lot, neither of these knocked Stinky, by Eleanor Davis, off its place as my family's favorite Toon Book of all...

(review copies received from the publisher)