Customer Reviews

Babymouse #12: Burns Rubber

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

my daughter loves these. all the babymouse books. they're adorable and the comic-book layout promotes fun reading for children who are uninterested in traditional books.

This book is a Cybils '10 nominee and as a panelist for Graphic Novels this is required reading for me.

Babymouse's friend can fix anything and she has always brought her broken stuff to him and he fixes it for her. While there she finds him working on his dream project, a soap box race car. This is the first year he has been old enough to enter and he encourages BM to enter too. Of course, she ends up bringing her problems to him and he ends up building the car for her to the detriment of his own car. Babymouse learns about abusing a friendship. Can't say this one really did anything for me at all. The imagination scenes are always the best in these books but aliens being killed by fractions, an "around the world in 80 days" take-off and the inevitable Star Wars scenario just didn't get any chuckles out of me. Of course the kids, and we're really talking girls here, who love the series are going to want to read this as much as any other.

In this, her twelfth adventure, the cupcake-obsessed rodent discovers a new sport: soapbox derby! But Babymouse lacks the focus to build a racecar, and so calls on her best friend, Wilson, to "help." But being Babymouse's helper is a demanding job, and Wilson might not have time to fix his own ride. When Chuck E. Cheetah, three-time derby winner, scoffs at Wilson's skill, what will Babymouse do?

Is it possible to dislike Babymouse? She is such a winning character that it is hard to imagine anybody having bad things to say about her. Like all Babymouse volumes, the joy in this book comes from Babymouse's uniquely scattered perspective; while it might not be good for Babymouse when she drifts off into fantasyland, it's great for the reader. Holm and Holm put Babymouse in a chariot race, in a hot-air balloon, even in the climax of a movie set long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. These sequences are an opportunity for some of the most joyous and playful art in comics, all rendered in trademark shades of pink, black, and white.


The fun and energy in these books are second to none, and young readers (and a few older ones) will be happy to see Babymouse back on the track.
-- Merideth Jenson-Benjamin

The lastest Babymouse adventure, Babymouse #12: Burns Rubber, has my students fighting over who gets to read it next! I teach fifth grade and I can't keep this series on my classroom bookshelf! I've tried sneaking in other graphic novels, but all the kids, boys and girls, prefer this series! Jennifer Holm is a huge hit! The number one question: "When does the next one come out?"