CHI'S SWEET HOME

Chi's Sweet Home is a new graphic novel series about this cute little cat name Chi. Chi cannot find her mother cat, but luckily he was rescued by a family. Unfortunately, this family lives in an apartment complex that does not allow pets. They try to keep Chi a secret while they search for a new home for him. This is hard because Chi, like most cats, gets himself into some troublesome situations.

This is a fun story and is just the first in a series about Chi's many fun adventures. The manga illustrations are simple, cute and colorful. This is sure to appeal to girl graphic novel enthusiasts.

MY LIFE AS A BOOK

My Life as a Book, written by Janet Tashjian, is all about the funny and artistic Derek. He's a bit of a slacker in school and despises reading books. What he really likes is drawing and reading comics. His mother tries to bribe him into reading but he ends up hiding in the attic and searching through all the old boxes. Inside one of them he finds an old newspaper article with the headline, Local Girl Found Dead on Beach. This peaks his interest even moreso when his mother confiscates it and throws it away.

Derek ends up in Learning Camp AKA Summer School and is assigned to read and report on three books over the summer. Yeah right. Instead, Derek finds himself investigating the mysterious newspaper article and trying to figure out why it was in their attic.

This is a fun mystery read with a good character that most kids can relate to. Derek's doodles fill the pages' margins and add humor to the story.