Poppy & Sam and the Mole Mystery

It is a beautiful day, and Poppy and Sam go to visit their friend, Snuggles Molesy. They find that Snuggles has lost their pretty pink glasses which they need in order to read, and together the three friends trace Snuggles' previous actions in order to figure out where the glasses might have been dropped. Along the way, they also find many other lost items belonging to the forgetful creatures of the forest. In the end, the pink glasses are duly found, and the friends help get the miscellaneous discovered items back to their owners by setting up a Lost and Found. After another long and interesting day, Poppy tucks in her furry friends and reads them a bedtime story to send them to sleep—The First Earthworm On the Moon.

Poppy & Sam and the Mole Mystery introduces young readers to the graphic novel format. It is a very well-balanced book in which the layout of panels on each page, the amount of text in each panel and the words’ placement within the panels, the amount of blank space in the illustrations as opposed to details, and the ratio of everyday spoken expressions (“Let's split up”) to more formal expressions (“Would you happen to have seen…?”), have all been carefully thought-out. Our well-meaning characters carry out their detective actions in a lush, attractive setting that is more like a backyard garden than a woodland: there is a lot of green, but it tends to be dandelions and toadstools, daisies and clover. The creatures are cartoon-like bees and spiders, rounded bats and ladybugs in a style reminiscent of kindergarten drawings. The atmosphere is playful and idyllic, and there are many unmentioned fun details for sharp-eyed readers to find: a four-leaf clover, a frog doing dishes, a friendly earthworm. There is also a quiet attention to detail in characters' actions, which is quite charming: for example, Poppy and Sam are sitting together in a tree when Sam starts eyeing a lush apple. In the next panel, Poppy has gently put her arm around Sam—either to stop him from reaching for it or to make sure he doesn't fall off their branch. There is no focus on this behavior in the following illustrations and no mention in the text, but it wordlessly shows what kind of friendship the two have as well as bringing both characters more vividly alive (other examples: Poppy is a lefty; Sam wants to eat everything he sees and is afraid of spiders).

Poppy & Sam and the Mole Mystery will be a wonderful book to read as a bedtime story, or in a small group of younger readers. Readers who are beginning to read for themselves will find it easy to follow the story to its end.