Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Animal Crackers by Scott Sava - OPTIONAL

Sava, Scott Animal Crackers, 107 pages.  GRAPHIC NOVEL.  First Second, 2017.  $16. Language: G (0 swears); Mature Content: G; Violence: G.  978-1626729353

Two young children, Owen and Zoe, get to go the circus with their Uncle Doug. But right away Zoe proclaims that the animals they visit have been stolen from a zoo and want to go home. Owen meets a mysterious woman who gives him a box of animal crackers. When the circus ringmaster decides to go for the trio, due to Zoe’s unusual ability to speak to animals, Owen finds out just in time that the box of animal crackers is much more than just crackers.

The illustrations are great, but the cover is very dated looking. Apparently there is a 2017 movie loosely based on this book, the trailer looked awesome –so you may have some interesting readers just based upon the student having seen the movie. The story was fast paced but didn’t really resolve much as far as the introduced plot –that the performer animals were all kidnapped –maybe that is in a future book. Not my favorite story and a real disappointment from First Second, who I have come to think highly of. The artwork in this book is much higher quality than in the first book of this series. Also I fail to see how these books are related –no continuing characters at all. So confused.

EL –OPTIONAL.  Stephanie, Elementary School Librarian & Author

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