When an Alien Meets a Swamp Monster

Illustrator Van Wright (Nobody Asked the Pea) tries his hand as author in a story involving misunderstandings, overactive imaginations, and “verometric outerhull stabilizers.” With a goggled helmet and customized red scooter, J.T. Boi is ready to explore, but a crash landing puts him face to face with a bona fide swamp monster. The “monster” is equally horrified—he’s actually a gator named Alik. “Well, I was at the pond, reading my comics and sipping some fizzy pop,” Alik tells his brother, “when a giant spaceship landed and out came... an alien!” Nodding to the comic books that both J.T. and Alik love, Van Bright augments the story with occasional sequential panels and captions (“Then, suddenly—”). The storytelling itself is a bit jumbled, opening with long quotes from J.T. before settling into a more traditional narrative; the story hovers between picture book and comic, not entirely comfortably. But Van Wright’s pencil-and-watercolor artwork more than compensates, invigorating the story with action and comedy, from J.T. and Alik’s muddy first encounter (with an epic “Ahhhhhhhhh!”) to their eventual realization that they have much in common. Ages 3–5. (Feb.)