All Together Now!

June 1, 2024
Four wildly different anthropomorphic instruments experience their first summer sleepaway camp. Ah, camp! Where lucky kids can enjoy nature, play games...and be subjected to terrifying ghost stories as well as mean jokes and pranks. Trey the triangle is skittish but also quick with a riposte. Zook the kazoo is cluelessly confident. Overenthusiastic Kaylee the ukulele can't stop talking but has real leadership potential. Nerdy Cordelia the accordion eagerly spouts laughable statistics and factoids. The four share Bunk J--cruelly labeled "Junk Bunk" by a too-cool-for-school trio who won last year's Big Bunk Battle. When our quartet catches on, Kaylee swings into coaching mode. They're all eager to take home the prize this summer. But their divergent interests--nature, model building, reading, video games--divide them until they discover a shared passion for performer MC Mica. Will Bunk J be able to pull together to beat the odds? Smith has crafted a strong series starter with this graphic novel. The vibrant art evokes old-time comics, rich in color and detail. Pacing, characterization, and conflict are deft and engaging. A five-chapter overture to a series that campers and noncampers will tune in to with glee. (Graphic chapter book. 6-9)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2024
Grades 1-4 Camp Lala Lake is a place where campers (all of whom are anthropomorphized musical instruments) go to make friends and participate in the annual Big Bunk Challenge. This year, a new group of campers have joined the ranks and are staying in bunk J, known to other campers as the "Junk Bunk" due to the fact that each year campers in this bunk tend to finish last in the Big Bunk Challenge. This year, however, newbies Trey (a triangle), Zook (a kazoo), Cordy (an accordion), and Kaylee (a ukulele) are looking to change things. After being picked on by a group of campers from another bunk, these new campers quickly bond and form friendships that may give them the edge they need in the competition. Smith's playful, simple character designs hit classic camp-story beats (food fight, ghost story, relay race) in a quick, entertaining comic full of feeling. Lots of jokes and open panels make this early reader comic easy to like.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 24, 2024

Gr 1-3-Strike up a symphony of laughter with a new graphic novel series featuring a full orchestra of characters sure to delight young readers. Trey (a metal triangle), Zook (a kazoo), Kaylee (a guitar), and Cordelia (an accordion) are all bunkmates for a summer of band camp at Camp LaLa Lake. The quartet of instruments become fast friends as they start learning how to work as a team and prove to everyone else that those in the Junk Bunk are winners, too. The artwork and panels are bright, cheerful, and easy to follow for younger readers. Musicians will appreciate the attention to detail on the accurate renderings of a wide variety of musical instruments-with the exception of the addition of human facial characteristics and limbs, of course. The characters all have clearly identifiable personalities that come across clearly through dialogue and actions, with no shortage of music puns and jokes. VERDICT This series opener is sure to be a hit in library collections specialized for younger elementary readers where music is a high interest.-Lindsey Morrison

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