Weekly (ha!) graphic novel review - Stone Rabbit series by Erik Craddock

Craddock, Erik. BC Mambo (Stone Rabbit: book 1). Random House, 2009.
Craddock, Erik. Pirate Palooza (Stone Rabbit: book 2). Random House, 2009.

In these full-color graphic novels, Stone Rabbit has a series of action-packed and somewhat incomprehensible adventures.

In BC Mambo, he plummets through a hole in his bathroom floor and ends up in the time of dinosaurs, Neolithic rabbits, a crazed genius Neanderthal, and robots. Barbecue sauce and boogers play crucial roles.

In Pirate Palooza, Stone Rabbit and his friend Andy (a dog, I’m pretty sure) find a pirate peg-leg replacement for their broken coffee table leg at their neighborhood comic bookstore – but it turns out that a ghastly pirate has been imprisoned inside the peg-leg. Let loose, he spirits them off to a ghostly pirate ship, where they fight ghosts and play checkers.

The illustrations are frenetic, kinetic, and quite pleasing – but they do move the action forward a bit more quickly than is advisable for a coherent storyline to develop. Will kids mind? Probably not – this stuff is lots of fun. Reluctant readers might even take the time to read the vocabulary lists at the end of each book – “Rogue (rohg): A dishonest, untrustworthy person who is loyal to no one.”

Not the best graphic novel series out there, but sure to be a crowd pleaser. Recommended for grades 2 – 4.