Comics Squad: Recess!

Holm, J. (2014). Comics squad: Recess!. NY: Random House.

About the Book

Comics Squad is a graphic novel that has eight different comic stories with eight different authors. Some of the stories are humorous, some are confusing to me an adult who does not have daily recess. Younger struggling readers will find the stories hilarious. Some of the stories are: Baby Mouse and her quest, Betty and the Pizza Monster, the cat who steals words from books to out smart the dog, and Freeze Tag where cupcake and peanut out smart the fruits and veggies.

Fantasy Evaluative Criteria

Characters – The author creates multiple characters who are not human. The dog and cat graphic story, illustrates the animals doing human like actions, but at the same time they are fitting the battle of which animal is smarter. Which relates to the real world since some people think cats are better and some people think dogs are better. In the story about Baby Mouse and the Quest for Recess, the mouse is imagining she is a knight at the round table and is going to safe herself from recess detention. The reader can sympathize with the mouse. The underlying humor comes from the experience the mouse is having since the reader may have had similar thoughts, if they had to sit out of recess once.

Theme – The editor has created a collection of short comic stories. Each of the stories is about school recess in some way. The authors create a humorous characters and stories about what could ultimately happen at recess. It is the reader’s short time to do what they want at school, just as the characters depict in each story. The possibilities of your imaginary play at recess are endless.