Cryptid Kids: The Bawk-ness Monster

by Natalie Riess, Sara Goetter

Overview

Penny swears that when she was a little girl, a creature called the Bawk-ness Monster—half sea serpent, half chicken—saved her from drowning. Now, years later, she’s about to move away to a new city, and before she goes, she needs the help of her best friends, Luc and K, for a vitally important mission: seeing “Bessie” one more time. But in their quest to find Bessie and give Penny the send-off she deserves, the kids stumble into a whole new problem—cryptids are being kidnapped by an evil collector, and only Penny, Luc, and K can save them!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250834676
Publisher:	First Second
Publication date:	06/27/2023
Series:	Cryptid Kids , #1
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	281,951
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 8.75(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Natalie Riess is a cartoonist from Pennsylvania. She now lives in Austin, TX, where she makes comics with her girlfriend and gets yelled at by their beautiful cat. She loves to draw food, nature, and horrible plant monsters. Her previous titles include Space Battle Lunchtime and Snarlbear.

Sara Goetter is a Pennsylvania-born cartoonist, currently based in Austin where she draws comics with her girlfriend. She specializes in drawing goofy faces, dumb jokes, and she cries whenever she thinks about frogs too much.

Editorial Reviews

04/10/2023

In this riotous graphic novel series opener by collaborators Riess and Goetter (Dungeon Critters), middle schooler Penny asks her best friends Luc and K to help her tie up loose ends as she prepares to move away from her hometown. Penny claims that, years ago, she was saved from drowning in Lake Bockamixon by a half-sea-serpent, half-chicken creature she calls Bessie the Bawk-ness Monster, and she aims to return to the lake to thank the gigantic cryptid. After Penny persuades her mother to take the trio camping at the lake, the tweens encounter Bessie, only to be captured alongside her by submarine-driving, notorious monster-hunter Alvida Scales. Now stuck in Alvida’s secret lair at the bottom of the lake, Penny and her friends must not only save themselves, but also Bessie and a menagerie of other caged critters. Psychedelically saturated full-color illustrations, which overflow with brisk movement and monster-hunting shenanigans, depict plentiful visual gags, including giggle-worthy cryptids such as Bigtaur, a bigfoot-centaur mashup, and Yeticorn, a yeti-unicorn hybrid. The evil scientist antics and madcap premise still leave room for emotionally charged moments that offset the escapade’s inherent silliness. Ages 8–12. (June)

Publishers Weekly

"Awash in silly asides, with the antics and kooky gadgetry of a 007 flick, this watery romp lands its affirmation that living authentically is possible for everyone—even cryptids."—Booklist

From the Publisher

2023-04-12
Penny plans to thank Bessie for rescuing her from a scary plunge in the lake three years ago.

Bessie, known as the Bawk-ness Monster, is a part-chicken, part–sea serpent legend residing in Lake Bockamixon. Penny enlists her friends—skeptical Luc and eager Kaylee, a budding cryptozoologist—to help her reconnect with the large, feathered creature. Penny’s mom, unaware of the plan to find Bessie, reluctantly agrees to take the trio camping at the lake, where Penny and her friends don a fake Bessie costume and are soon captured by a group of cryptid poachers. The poacher’s boss, Alvida Scales, a Cruella de Vil type, is a single-minded, child-loathing villain who has built a lair under the lake to cage the various cryptids she’s collected and plans to sell. The trio of friends—and Penny’s mom—heroically rise to the occasion in order to rescue themselves and the cryptids. The human characters possess a lively, sometimes frenzied energy, with swooping gestures, huge eyes, and enormous mouths conveying emotion. The bright backgrounds, dynamic speech balloons, and many open frames are equally energetic. Kaylee is Black; other major characters read White. A flashback shows Luc’s evolving gender identity. Goetter and Riess provide an illustrated inside look at their process of creating the graphic novel, from concepts to thumbnails to inking.

A spirited mix of excitement and broad humor. (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)

Kirkus Reviews