Sir Ladybug
by Corey R. Tabor; illus. by the author
Primary    Balzer + Bray/HarperAlley/HarperCollins    72 pp.    g
3/22    978-0-06-306906-0    $12.99
e-book ed.  978-0-06-306908-4    $7.99

Sir Ladybug and the Queen Bee
by Corey R. Tabor; illus. by the author
Primary    Balzer + Bray/HarperAlley/HarperCollins    72 pp.    g
6/22    978-0-06-306909-1    $12.99
e-book ed.  978-0-06-306911-4    $7.99

A gentle but fiercely loyal ladybug knight is joined by his faithful herald (a roly-poly bug who gets a little nervous sometimes but loves to loudly tell anyone who’ll listen how great his friends are) and his steed/squire (a snail with a surprisingly spacious shell and a love of adventure) in Geisel Award–winning (for Fox at Night) and Caldecott honoree (for Mel Fell, rev. 3/21) Tabor’s first two installments of a graphic-novel series for the early-reader set. These small-scale quests are packed with referential jokes and friendly banter as the trio heeds the call of creatures facing trouble, including themselves. It takes teamwork and problem-solving, for example, to stop a hungry chickadee from eating them for dinner. Sometimes it’s good deeds that save the day, but sometimes the only solution to a big problem is an exceptionally delicious lemon cake. And you never know when the tale might be briefly interrupted (chapters titled “Interlude”) by, for example, a poem celebrating Sir Ladybug in the style of William Carlos Williams. The neat and precise illustrations reflect the warm, understatedly funny tone of the stories, with soft colors and simply but expressively drawn creatures. Tabor’s celebration of friendship will have readers joining Pell the Roly-Poly Herald in loudly singing Sir Ladybug’s praises.

From the May/June 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.