Nessie

An outing to catch the Loch Ness Monster leaves a sensitive child protagonist questioning the term monster in this riff on the Scottish legend. On a day out, Rhona’s fame- and fortune-hunting uncle Allister (who’s “a little odd, but also a lot of fun”) plans to lure fabled beast Nessie using pancakes as bait. After the duo systematically surrounds their boat with floating flapjacks, Allister’s project seems destined for failure. But when Rhona alone encounters a gentle creature with “big, warm eyes, like those of a horse,” the heroine’s perspective on the outing shifts, and she begins working against her relative’s questionable aims. Martens’s artwork uses fine lines to foreground the figures against foggy lake scenes washed with layers of moody color, while lengthy paragraphs from De Keyzer provide a mystical meditation on making assumptions and connections. Human characters are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 6–11. (Sept.)