Squid Happens (The Adventures of Team POM #1)

When pigeon enthusiast Agnes, oceanography buff Ruby, and synchronized swimmer Roberta can’t recruit enough members to form a club at the Salmagundi Boys and Girls Club of Shadyside Queens, they band together to create Team POM (“pigeons, ocean stuff, miscellaneous”). A synchronized swimming competition ushers in a crushing defeat by Roberta’s rivals and former teammates, but the crew’s fortunes soon change. They encounter a friendly giant squid, Cyd, hiding from a villain and his rat agents, who seek the tentacled creature’s ink. Offering Cyd sanctuary, the team hopes that adding a squid to their number will elevate their next routine to Junior Diving Diva status. Madcap and joke-filled, Roxas’s (Our Skin) graphic novel debut expressively illustrates nonstop action and slapstick humor while grounding it in a recognizably depicted version of Queens and clearly delineating the primary cast members’ personalities. The ethnically inclusive team and their friendship dynamic is a highlight of this joyfully absurd, pleasingly overstuffed story, and while “little boss” Roberta basks in the spotlight, Agnes and Ruby also make themselves felt. Ages 7–10. [em](June) [/em]