Ben Wood

Pigeons! Pigeons are inherently funny and this new graphic blend, beginning chapter series is no exception.
The first mystery begins with a question. Which one of these creatures is a pigeon? Is it the strutting rooster? The bouncing, carrot-munching rabbit? The bug-eyed caterpillar on a pile of leaves? Yes, Yes, and No! (but the pile of leaves hides a pigeon!) and that pigeon is Rock, a master of disguise. Rock Pigeon, a sleek gray bird with bulging eyes and a predilection for nature, loves to dress up as other animals, but the animals on the farm where he lives don't appreciate it. In fact, they're always telling him "Real pigeons should do pigeon things!" But Rock doesn't listen and one day, a strange, elderly pigeon, Grandpouter Pigeon, shows up and wants to recruit Rock for a crime-fighting squad of pigeons!

Rock jumps right into his first mystery, the mystery of the missing bread crumbs, and meets the other recruits, each with their own super power. Frillback pigeon has beautifully curly feathers and she also has super-strength. Tumbler pigeon, with a twisty neck, can do the most amazing twists in the air and she's flexible on the ground too! Homey, (short for Homing Pigeon) has a big, blocky head and he can find anything. Together, they face dangers and finally solve the mystery. Rock's doubts and fears dissolve and he knows he is a Real Pigeon now, and Real Pigeons Fight Crime!

Their next adventure features Tumbler's friends, the bats, and a mysterious bat trapper. It also features way too many meetings in garbage cans, at least in Rock's opinion. Having solved the first two cases, the Real Pigeons must face a team-up of their villains, Jungle Crow and MegaBat at a food fair. Can they save the food? And the people? And will Rock be able to conquer the final frontier in disguises - pretending to be a person?

Black and white cartoons fill the pages. There are few traditional panels, but no more than a few sentences of a text at a time. Most dialogue is shown with a few quick lines to connect it to the speaker, rather than speech balloons. The pigeons are goofily drawn, with bulgy eyes and wacky body types. Readers will need to be fairly fluent to follow the numerous exclamations and silly plots, but the text itself is fairly simple with short sentences and only a few more complex words. I would say this is a bit more difficult than Bad Guys, but not quite as challenging as Dragonbreath, both of which it would make a nice read-alike for.

Verdict: If, like me, you have Bad Guy fans who just can't get enough of those goofy characters but whose parents don't want them to read the more crude humor of Pilkey and who aren't ready for the more challenging Dragonbreath books, these silly mysteries are the perfect challenge, with just a little more text, plenty of art, and only a little potty humor. The designation of two of the team as female is a nice touch, as very few books include funny female characters. My only complaint is they're not available in paperback, so I could put them into my juvenile series collection and will need to put them in the regular juvenile fiction. I probably won't have the budget to purchase them this year, but I can't wait to get them next year!

ISBN: 9780593119426; Published January 2020 by Random House; Borrowed from another library in my consortium; Purchased for the library… (mehr)