Fox & Rabbit Celebrate
Beth Ferry and Gergely Dudás
Amulet Books

This graphic novel style series is terrific fun and it’s reached the third book. The focus for the five interconnected stories is celebration and there’s so much to love about them, not least being the alliterative story titles.

First Fix, Fuss & Flies takes place just before Sparrow’s birthday and begins with Fox announcing confusingly for his pal Rabbit that he’s decided to change the middle letter of his name to i and henceforward he’s to be called Fix not Fox or even better Fix-it Fox. Well maybe for that day only; but before it ends there are a number of jobs that need fixing and other animals wanting to be part of i day. So, Fred becomes Frid, and Rabbit gets dubbed Ribbit.

All ends happily with the work done but I do wonder what Tortoise might have been called had he not rocked up right at the day’s end in time for dinner, asking his usual ‘What’d I miss?’

In Party, Pizza & Plans Rabbit and Fox resolve to make Sparrow’s birthday (the next day) ‘super-trooper special’, the best ever and that entails making him the biggest, yummiest pizza in the world. As they have no idea how to make such a thing, they’ll need help, but from whom? Where will all the ingredients come from and how will they go about cooking so huge a thing?

Make way for a new and fiery character in the third story, the addressing of whom requires speaking another language – or perhaps not.

Said new character also appears in Birthdays, Best Days & Best Friends, where he’s introduced, performs a key task, becomes part of the team and a great time is had by all; but guess who almost misses the entire thing.

Wonder, Wish & Wow involves memories of the celebration, a lot of guessing and a considerable amount of hard work; but is it all worth the effort? Does Sparrow’s birthday wish come true?
Love the ending, love the new character and of course, I totally love Tortoise.

Dudás’ brightly coloured, splendidly expressive illustrations together with Beth Ferry’s terrific text, almost entirely in speech bubbles, make this perfect for those just moving to chapter books.