Luke on the Loose

By Harry Bliss, coloured by FranÃ§oise Mouly & Zeynep Memecan (Toon Books/Raw Junior)
ISBN: 978-1-935179-05-4

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: the bestest book yet for keeping adults quiet and opening a world of adventure for younger kidsâ€¦ 10/10

Here’s another sublimely enticing yarn for early readers and older instructors possibly bored with wholesomely anodyne little tots.

Award-winning creator Harry Bliss was reared on a diet of Will Elder’s Mad Magazine cartoons and, after surviving to adulthood, started selling his own manic doodles and covers to the prestigious periodical the New Yorker. He’s also illustrated many fine and fabulous children’s books such as Sharon Creech’s A Fine, Fine School, Doreen Cronin’s Diary ofâ€¦ series – a Worm, a Fly and a Spider so far – as well as Which Would You Rather Be? by William Steig and the marvellously stirring Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo. This is his first comic book, but you’d never know it. Hopefully, if lots of us buy it, he’ll keep up the great workâ€¦

Opening with a handy all-ages-accessible map of the City That Never Sleeps (just remember â€œthe Bronx is up and the Battery’s Downâ€), Luke on the Loose introduces a little lad with a lot of energy and a dangerous amount of single-minded determination, whose inquisitive focus and blind concentration leads him into a great big New York Adventureâ€¦

Whilst being taken for a walk with his father inCentral Park, Luke’s attention is captured by a flock of pigeons. Slipping out of his distracted dad’s grasp, Luke chases after the birds and just keeps on goingâ€¦

Even running as fast as he can – which is pretty darn quick – the boy can’t catch his cooing quarry but his phenomenal progress through the urban arboreal esplanade causes a wave of commotion that leaves people, pooches and sundry other passers-by windswept and reelingâ€¦

Also reeling is Luke’s Mum once Dad telephones herâ€¦

Caught in the moment of complete absorption Luke hurtles onward, out of the park, across the bridge and into the wilds ofBrooklyn, vaulting moms with strollers, hurtling over kerbside diners and young lovers and crashing through a queue at an ice-cream stand. Unable to escape the determined pursuit the flurried flock heads up and, thanks to a handy fire-escape, so does Lukeâ€¦

Raucous, riotous and riveting, infinitely re-readable and packed with overlapping gags in layers of beguiling pictorial detail, Luke on the Loose is superbly engaging, thrill-a-minute and hilariously exciting: the kind of fun tale boisterous little boys will adore in that so-brief window every day between full-speed rushing about and total sleeping shut-downâ€¦

Little girls will love it too, but probably take time to savour it rather than rocket about copying the hyper-active little star meteor â€¦

Toon Books/Raw Junior was established by Art Spiegelman and FranÃ§oise Mouly as an imprint of the groundbreaking and legendary alternative comics magazine, dedicated to producing high-quality comics stories in premium formats to suit pre-schoolers and beginning readers and form the first steps of a life enriched by strips and reading.

Their books of superbly superior comic tales come in three educational standards (Level 1: First Comic for brand new readers, Level 2: Easy-to-Read for Emerging Readers and Level 3: Chapter Books for Advanced Beginners) and the company enhances their publications with on-line supplements.

TOON-BOOKS.com offers follow ups like interactive audio-versions (read by the authors), a choice of languages and a â€œcartoon makerâ€ facility allowing readers to make their own adventures about the characters they have just met in the printed editions. Most books also include tips for parents and teachers on ‘How to Read Comics with Kids’â€¦

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