CM Magazine: Gordon: Bark to the Future! (A P.U.R.S.T. Adventure).

________________ CM . . . . Volume XXIV Number 40. . . .June 15, 2018

Gordon: Bark to the Future! (A P.U.R.S.T. Adventure).

Ashley Spires.
Toronto, ON: Kids Can Press, 2018.
72 pp., pbk. & hc., $8.99 (pbk.), $16.99 (hc.).
ISBN 978-1-77138-410-0 (pbk.), ISBN 978-1-77138-409-4 (hc.).

Subject Heading:
Graphic novels.

Grades 2-3 / Ages 7-8.

Review by Andrea Boyd.

***½ /4

Excerpt:

“Doggone it! He has to try!

If he leaves the time machine running…(click, yank)

He might save enough power to make it travel twice (boop, boop)

But he will only have two minutes before it automatically travels back to his time.

If Gordon doesn’t make it back to the time machine before it leaves, he will be stuck in the past forever.

But what choice does he have? He has to save the future!”

HOLY FUZZBUTT! Gordon’s space station has been invaded by aliens! His partner has been captured. His superior officer has been neutralized. And Gordon’s distress calls to P.U.R.S.T. (Pets of the Universe Ready for Space Travel) have gone unanswered. Now it’s all up to Gordon to save his friends and his humans. Readers travel back in time with Gordon who is determined to change the past by preventing the invasion from occurring in the first place. His critical thinking and problem-solving skills are put to the test with limited time and allofuzzium fuel, which is required for his time machine to run. Will he be able to overcome the challenges? Can he successfully stop the alien invasion?

      Beep! Boop! Bzzz! This fun junior graphic novel is loaded with onomatopoeia and made-up sound effects on every page. Gordon: Bark to the Future! is an easy, light read with minimal words on each page and many comic-style illustrations, all perfectly suited for young readers who are searching for a longer read while maintaining the comfort of lots of images.

      Ashley Spires does an excellent job incorporating humour through her illustrations as well as the text. The exaggerated facial expressions on the animated characters and the incorporation of silly, made up words (for example, “Holy fuzzbutt!”) are sure to get a laugh out of the intended young audience. With a wide range of images on each page, it is possible to understand the storyline without reading the words on the page, though the words in the text are not overly challenging.

      Gordon: Bark to the Future! is the second in a series of “P.U.R.S.T. Adventure” novels, the first being Fluffy Strikes Back. Spires has also written a series of “Binky Adventure”, and Binky is one of the main characters readers meet in Gordon: Bark to the Future!

Highly Recommended.

Andrea Boyd is an early years educator in Winnipeg, MB.

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