Comics Squad: Lunch!

Comics creators including Cece Bell, Jeffrey Brown, Nathan Hale, and Cecil Castellucci and Sara Varon let loose on lunchtime in this second Comics Squad outing. In Bell’s standout story, Ellie’s reliance on her same-every-day lunch collides with her crush on a classmate—and what looks like a burgeoning nut allergy. Jason Shiga reprises the multiple-choice format of Meanwhile in a time-travel mystery that will require careful attention from readers. A new Peanuts comic featuring Snoopy as a lunchroom monitor is sadly forgettable, and Nathan Hale, in an offshoot of his Hazardous Tales series, merges the lunch theme with a real-life WWII tale, the difficulty of which he seems to acknowledge (“Throwing potatoes is silly. Hundreds of sailors going to a watery grave, well... that’s not so silly”). Bullies, archaeology, science experiments, and dodgeball combine in a collection that puts less of an emphasis on comedy than its predecessor. Ages 7–10. (Jan.)