Lemon Bird: Can Help!
by Paulina Ganucheau ; illus. by the author
Primary     RH Graphic/Random    112 pp.         g
8/22     978-0-593-12267-9     $12.99
Library ed.  978-0-593-12533-5    $15.99
e-book ed.  978-0-593-12268-6    $7.99

Lemon Bird isn’t the only fruit-animal hybrid in this cute and kooky graphic novel—there are pairs of cherry mice (attached by their cherry-stem tails); an adorable pack of roly-poly “pupkins” in a pupkin patch; and a sour Keylime bird, among others. Round little Lemon Bird can’t fly, but she can help Pupkin, who’s gotten caught in some vines. “Lemon Bird to the rescue!” After she snips through the greenery with her beak, the new pals run around playing, then fall asleep in a pickup truck, which takes them far from Pupkin’s home. As they set out to find their way back, the two work together to help others. Even after Keylime is unkind to them, they save her from a vicious cat. (Humans often have skin and hair as colorful as the fruit-animal mixes, and their speech bubbles contain strings of shapes and symbols.) But when Pupkin chases a beetle and runs away from Lemon Bird, Keylime, changed by the kindness they showed her, saves the day— and teaches Lemon Bird how to fly! All ends well in this offbeat, action-packed adventure illustrated with sweet and surreal pictures in an array of jewel tones.

From the November/December 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.