children's middlegrade fiction (5th-7th grade and up)
I forgot how much I love SG's human bestie Ana Sofia, the deaf Latinx character (who is now friends with Thor in a hilarious way). And the shade that's constantly thrown in the Avengers' text convos is priceless.

This is the sequel to #1, but both are excellent, and you can definitely read them out of order. ( )

A wonderful, enjoyable romp. Perfectly in the spirit of the amazing Squirrel Girl, this second YA novel is a delight. Great story, fantastic characters, and wonderful heart-warming friendship. Love it. ( )

I should probably give this two stars, but the mere presence of Squirrel Girl is enough to earn a bonus star.

I would probably have enjoyed this much more if it were about a hundred pages shorter. The boring digressions with a cranky teacher, the Squirrel Scouts, and a couple human/animal hybrids were a real drag.

The book works best when it focuses on Squirrel Girl and Ana Sophia's relationship and the actual confrontation with the main villain. The page about the bite strength of squirrels and Doreen's proportional equivalent is the stand out moment.

It is nice that the novels exist, but Ryan North and Erica Henderson's comic books remain the best source of Squirrel Girl greatness. ( )

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious by Shannon and Dean Hale is the second Squirrel Girl prose novel, following on from the setting and characters established in the first book, Squirrel Meets World. That said, 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious stands alone fairy well and does not require having read the earlier book to be enjoyed.

Much as expected, this book was fun, light-hearted and humorous. It revisits middle school-aged Squirrel Girl/Doreen Green along with her best human and squirrel friends, Anna Sofia and Tippy Toe, respectively. While Doreen and Anna Sofia navigate friendship and middle school, something strange and probably evil is brewing in their town. Will they realise in time to put a stop to it before it gets out of hand? And now many Squirrel Girl commentary foot notes can be squeezed into one book? (94. The answer is 94.)

I enjoyed 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious a lot, although I think slightly less than I enjoyed the first book in the series. I'm not sure whether that's to do with actual differences in tone/voice etc or just a difference in my mood when each book was read. That said, I did feel there was a difference in Tippy Toe's voice with its idiosyncrasies being toned down a bit in 2 Fuzzy, 2 Furious compared with Squirrel Meets World. I don't think this is a bad thing though, since it's now a bit more accessible.

Overall this book was strong on the power of friendship and being nice to people, with a few amusing attempts at peaceful conflict resolution on Squirrel Girl's part. I would definitely not hesitate to give it to young children (although Australian and other non-US children would probably require an explanation as to what middle school is). I enjoyed it a lot and I will definitely be reading any more Squirrel Girl books the Hales write.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. ( )