Attack of the Growling Eyeballs by Lin Oliver, illustrated by Stephen Gilpin (Simon & Schuster, 2008).
This is the first in the "Who Shrunk Daniel Funk?" series, in which Daniel discovers the ability to shrink down to the size of a toe and has plenty adventures with his tiny and long-lost twin brother Pablo. Eccentric characters abound - after all, the series takes place in nutty Venice, CA, my hometown, where we like to work our weirdness. Plenty of text, but jolted by funny drawings every 5 pages or so.
Cool Zone With the Pain and the Great One by Judy Blume, illustrated by James Stevenson.
1st-grader Jake (the Pain) and his 3rd-grade sister Abigail (the Great One, natch) take turns describing events such as the disastrous Bring Your Pet to School Day and the day Abigail changed her name to Violet Rose. Quietly hilarious, and there are others in this series to enjoy.
Alvin Ho: Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Schwartz & Wade, 2008)
It's a good thing 2nd-grader Alvin has his "desk buddy" Flea, his sassy little sister Anibelly and the rest of his fab family, and even a scary old crone piano teacher to keep him moving onward and upward. The plentiful Calvin & Hobbs-esque illustrations brim with quirky energy.
The title just about says it all (although I was disappointed to discover that this book is NOT about my sister-in-law). It's goofy, it's funny, it's weird as heck, and there are pleny of cartoony b/w illustrations confined in comic-style boxes or smeared across whole pages. A swift and chortling read, and just one in a series of four Fred & Anthony adventures.
Twins Stephanie and Zeke journey once again to Underwhere, where folks wear their undies outside their clothes. Any book with a magic toilet brush and a crazy cat is okay with me. This is half graphic novel, half old-school chapter book - the b/w drawings have a rounded Powerpuff Girls look to them which kids should find appealing.
So, a spaceship shaped like a carrot lands in Hercules' yard and out hop two huge space bunnies. They tell lots of terrible jokes, they sing and dance, and they want to save the children of Dingdale from a terrible fate. Plenty of Captain Underpants-style illustrations on every single page and not too many words slowing things down. What's not to wuv?
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