Narwhalicorn and Jelly

Narwhalicorn and Jelly is the seventh installment of Ben Clanton’s “Narwhal and Jelly” series. Narwhal and Jelly are off to a new adventure involving what it would be like to walk on land. So, Narwhal wishes to be a Narwhalicorn in order to fulfill the curiosity of what it would be like to have “pegs” like a “landlubber”. Their friend Star helps make this wish come true and takes them to planet unicorn where they have some out-of-this-world-fun. However, this adventure isn’t all fun and games as their friendship is tested due to their inability to listen to each other’s needs.

Narwhalicorn and Jelly is a graphic novel divided into five chapters. Each chapter’s being short helps propel the story quickly and pieces the different sections together. The text is written in capital letters and large font. Many of the sentences are simple exclamatory sentences or questions. The humour in the story is driven by the dialogue between the characters and their uses of puns and sea jargon, all of which makes the book appealing to older children. Unlike some graphic novels, the graphics are drawn largely in the panels. A majority of panels in Narwhalicorn and Jelly take up half the page to a full page, a design feature which matches the simple and short text format. Cool colour tones of black, teal and yellow are used for the sea parts of the story which contrast with the party colour tones, like sky blue and cotton candy pink, used on planet unicorn. In addition to the dialogue, the graphics help narrate the story and depict the feelings of the characters throughout the story.

Overall, Narwhalicorn and Jelly is another entertaining over-the-top adventure from Ben Clanton’s “Narwhal and Jelly” series.