Gabby & Gator

Animator Burks, who has worked on projects from The Iron Giant to Wow Wow Wubbsy!, has now created a book with all the essential ingredients to appeal to a wide audience. On display are an outcast protagonist, a tambourine-playing alligator, and a car chase. Oh, and a moral to the story: accept yourself for who you are and find friends who do the same. Illustrated in a hybrid comics–children's book manner and using simple and straightforward panels, Burks tells the story of Gabby, a painfully shy homebody who doesn't speak outside of the house. She's picked on by the school jock and has no friends. Gator lives in a dry sewer where he ended up after getting flushed down a toilet. He's got an aversion to water, but an appetite for dogs. It's an unlikely pairing, which Burks capitalizes on for the sake of wholesome fun and entertainment. The message of self-love is heavy-handed at times, but pluses include an out-of-left-field ending. All ages. (Oct.)