5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice blend of easy-reader and something more advanced, November 2, 2009
This review is from: Stone Rabbit #3: Deep-Space Disco (Paperback)
The plot of Stone Rabbit: Deep-Space Disco is pretty simple: An evil alien switches places with the normally mild-mannered Stone Rabbit. Melvin the Plutarkian disguises himself as Stone Rabbit and goes on a rampage at the local comics store, where he builds a killer robot out of toys. Meanwhile, the real Stone Rabbit is transported through space to Melvin's home planet, where everyone assumes he is really Melvin. On the new planet, Stone Rabbit is tried for Melvin's crimes (which include destroying a galaxy) and sentenced to "destruction in the Vlarpaxem," as simple death would probably be too good for him (not to mention too grim for a kids' comic).
Of course, Stone Rabbit isn't having any of that. He lurches to safety, and through sheer accident, he ends up behind the controls of a giant robot and battles the other mechs to freedom. Next stop: A plane with a smart but snarky navigation system. As Stone Rabbit heads toward earth, Melvin has resumed his natural form and is stomping across Happy Glades, where the natives have just realized that this actually isn't a game. Just as he is about to totally trash the place, though, Stone Rabbit's friend, Henri Tortoise, realizes that Melvin is vulnerable to one thing--cold. He punctures an ice-cream truck and encases Melvin in a block of ice. The world is saved!
The story is action-packed, but the violence is strictly Saturday morning cartoon stuff; the characters brandish light sabers and knock each other around a lot, but no one is seriously hurt. Younger readers who haven't watched a lot of TV might find some of the aliens scary, though.
Craddock manages a nice balancing act in this book--it's packed with action and plenty of detail, but it's still very easy to read. This is partly because he limits the number of panels to one or two per page, and he sometimes grays out the background to keep the action in the foreground. The result is a book that is more fun to look at the more you look at it; he fills the pages with imaginatively designed monsters and aliens with seven eyeballs and other distinguishing features.
He also uses a lot of sound effects, using different lettering and styles for different types of sounds. The vocabulary in the story is a bit advanced, with lots of sci-fi talk about galaxies and weapons and such, but readers don't need to get all that to follow the story, and there is a short glossary in the back.
In fact, Stone Rabbit: Deep-Space Disco is a nice blend of easy-reader and something more advanced. The basic story is easy to follow through the art and sound effects, and it's interesting enough that it may motivate readers to figure out the more difficult words themselves.
-- Brigid Alverson
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