It's widely considered taboo to write in books, but it's mandatory to write in this one. In the first fill-in-the-blank comic-strip romp in Mike Lowery's clever and comical Doodle Adventures series, the reader is recruited to grab a pencil and help the rather hyped-up, bespectacled narrator Carl the Duck navigate his top-secret outer-space mission.
"Oh, good. You're FINALLY here. We don't have time to small talk," Carl the Duck addresses the reader on page one. "We need to hurry!" The first task breaks the ice: draw a cat wearing sunglasses. (The style of the existing comic-strip panels is simple and sketchy--inviting, not intimidating, and printed in orange and blue ink.) After a little "paperwork," where readers answer questions--from "least favorite food" to "requested super secret agent name"--the adventure begins! Someone has stolen a jar, a priceless artifact, from a collection of "weird things that explorers have brought back from all over the world." And Carl thinks he knows who the perpetrator is, based on the slimy residue at the crime scene: "Captain Sleezoog, the ruler of K-82, the planet of slugs." After the reader designs a spacesuit and draws space supplies (and snacks), oh, and a rocket ship, the vital mission can proceed in its super-slapstick fashion.
Kids will love making this story their own, and it may well hook a new crop of readers who haven't yet experienced the joy of fully engaging with a book. Next in the series: The Pursuit of the Pesky Pizza Pirate. --Karin Snelson, children's & YA editor, Shelf Awareness