Pablo and Splash

Gr 2--4--Penguin friends Pablo and Splash race across 14 chapters of adventure, action, and humor in this new series. The friends are introduced as part of a penguin huddle in Antarctica at -72 degrees. Splash is freezing and thinks that she and Pablo should go on a warm weather vacation. While planning this trip, the pair fall down a chute into the hidden lab of Prof. O'Brain, a brilliant but quirky scientist. Scared but resourceful, the pair ends up hiding inside a time machine named Timebender that misunderstands the penguin chatter and takes them to the sun and then to the Cretaceous Period. Instead of finding beach chairs, water slides, and slushies, they are chased around by a variety of aggressive dinosaurs. Full-color illustrations perfectly capture all the details of the adventure. Varied panel sizes, use of gutters, and dynamic spreads add to the humor. Guided by the duo, fun activities and added information appear at the end. VERDICT A worthy addition for young graphic novel readers. Give to fans of series like "InvestiGators" and "Pizza and Taco."--Elisabeth LeBris

In a tale that ranges through space and time, two Antarctic penguins in search of warmer climes fall afoul of technology with a taste for pranks. Sick of the cold (she huddles in the middle of the flock and sports a cozy hat and scarf to boot), Splash chivies her cautious, krill-loving buddy, Pablo, into joining her in a waddling exodus that's cut short when the two fall into a hole in the ice. Happily, at the bottom lies a hidden lab where light-skinned, pink-haired genius Professor O'Brain has just put the finishing touches on a device she dubs the TimeBender--a name that doesn't quite do the talking vehicle justice: Responding to Splash's yen for "somewhere hot," it hies the dumbfounded duo off to the Sun, where they are moderately singed, and then back to an Earthly beach…in the Cretaceous period. Casting Pablo as the long-suffering straight penguin opposite his reckless, but not entirely feckless, counterpart, Dempsey plays the pair nicely against each another. One picks up the slack through numerous misadventures whenever the other melts down, and the comical banter never lets up. The tale, as light and cheery as the cleanly drawn cartoon panels, ends where it began, with the travelers lounging beneath the southern lights and chowing down on krill pops. The author even appends drawing lessons and notes on all the toothy prehistoric creatures who nearly had penguin for dinner. A "krilly" entertaining odyssey.(Graphic adventure. 7-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.