Monsters Beware!

January 15, 2018
Fiery as ever both of hair and temperament, young swashbuckler Claudette tackles a giant sea monster and its progeny in this third exploit.Though supremely disgusted to discover that the Warrior Games being hosted by the town of Mont Petit Pierre feature competitions in butter churning and like nonwarlike events, Claudette nonetheless enters, enlisting best friend Marie and accomplished chef and little brother Gaston as teammates. Maddeningly, they lose time after time to the three children of the duchess of the sea kingdom while other competing teams mysteriously vanish one by one. Claudette's mood improves dramatically when the sea folk, shedding at last their human disguises, turn into huge crablike creatures given to hoovering up human prey and, it seems, scheming to free evil wizard Grombach from the spell that had frozen him in Dragons Beware! (2015). Now, here's a proper knightly challenge! Rosado and colorist Novak give Aguirre's funny, dashing tale full measures of drama and gusto as, in the cinematically sequenced panels, the easy-to-follow action revs up to a glorious climactic melee. In the end the monsters are vanquished (with significant assistance from Gaston's spell for instant Aztec chocolate mousse gelato), and in a joyful surprise, all their victims come back to life--including Claudette and Gaston's long-lost warrior mom. With the exception of one black family friend, the principals are all white; Claudette and Gaston's father uses a wheelchair.Pint-sized heroes triumph again. (art notes) (Graphic fantasy. 7-12)

COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 15, 2018
Grades 2-5 Courageous tomboy, clever princess, aspiring dessert chef, African knight, and gruff wheelchair-using ex-warriorthe giant- and dragon-fighting scallywags return to add monsters to their repertoire. This time out, Claudette talks her way (along with her dubious friends) into the Warrior Games, an Olympics-like contest which, much to tough, brave Claudette's disappointment, turns out to be a contest of butter churning, truffle hunting, and field plowing. That's not even to speak of the opposing team, which turns out to be heinous monsters in disguise, with their eyes on a lot more than just first prize. This all plays out with energy and charm in Rosado's swift, modern cartooning, which distinctively incorporates shapes and details that recall a rougher, spunkier era of children's animation and includes some particularly nifty double splash pages. Previous installments put a higher premium on subverting social stereotypes, but the story never loses sight of the fact that friendship trumps winning, intelligence and diplomacy have their place in victory, and that it's not just shape but intention that makes a monster.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)