Shark and Bot

When they first meet up on a suburban playground, lonely Bot and new-kid-in-town Shark, who totes a stuffed bear, seem unlikely to become friends--in fact, Bot generates a graph showing how slim the odds are. But they bond over a mutual love of a fictive graphic novel series called Glo-Nuts (about doughnuts mixed with mutant DNA), and together, they win over a gang of playground bullies with some impressive dance moves, forming a more inclusive crew. With this graphic novel series starter, Yanish creates a sweet spot of genial, straightforward compositions and highly polished comic rhythms. While the bully plot feels stale and even misguided (why should Shark and Bot have to prove anything to use a public playground?), there's a lot of fun in the duo's geeking out and cracking wise. Interactive material appears throughout, such as tips for replicating the "Shark-Bot" dance and drawing the starring odd couple. Ages 5--8. (Sept.)

It looks like the beginning of a beautiful (and unlikely) friendship. Shark is a great white shark from Australia who has recently moved to the (unspecified, probably North American) neighborhood with his stuffed wombat, Batty. Bot is a Model R-2300 Cutting Robot who lives 0.185 miles from the park where they first meet. Neither is good at making new friends. Bot has a blade for a hand (makes fist-bumping problematic), and Shark is…well, a shark. No one thinks sharks and robots go together, but these two bond over a shared love for the Glo-Nuts graphic novels, which chronicle the exploits of a half-dozen pastries turned into superheroes by an explosion in an underground laboratory. When bullies invade the park and take over, Shark and Bot try to decide what to do: fight them? Ask them nicely to leave? Make their brains explode with hard math problems? No…dance battle, of course! Will these two awkward new friends come out on top? Yanish kicks off this new graphic-novel series aimed at chapter-book readers with an enjoyable mix of goofiness and metafiction. Two Glo-Nuts episodes, rendered in a strikingly different color palette, appear between chapters. Pages on how to draw the characters and character bios close out this genial first outing. A funny tale of awkwardness overcome in big, inviting panels. (Graphic fiction. 6-9) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.