Zig and Wikki in Something Ate My Homework by Nadja Spiegelman. Illustrated by Trade Loeffler (Canada) - (USA)A Toon Book
Pages: 40 pages
Ages: 6+
Finished: May 13, 2010
First Published: Apr. 5, 2010
Publisher: Toon Books
Genre: graphic novel, children, easy reader
Rating: 5/5
First sentence:
Wikki, are you playing video games AGAIN?
Acquired: Received a review copy from RAW Junior, LLC.
Reason for Reading: My son read this aloud to me as his reader.
Zig is late handing in his assignment, a pet for the class zoo. While he and Wikki, an animate computer, are flying around the galaxy they find themselves near Earth where they drop by to see if they can find an animal for Zig's assignment.
This Toon Reader is slightly different than all the others to date. It is described on the website as being "science-based". How this happens is that every now and then when the two are confronted with an unknown element Wikki's screen will turn on and a large oval display will show up with an interesting fact about said element. These aren't just your boring little information blurbs either; they are very interesting information, often humorous or gross, on the subject such as "Fly Spitting: Flies use spit to turn their food into liquid, then they suck it up, again."
My learning disabled 9yo really enjoyed this book. As far as both of us are concerned, we'd say this is the best graphic novel Toon Books has put out so far (and we've read them all)! Even though the book is in the 3rd level, ds was so interested in the story that he even surprised himself at how well he could read the book. The story has all the ingredients an easy reader calls for: interesting plot, humour, enjoyable characters and a surprise ending. We hope Zig and Wikki will return in further adventures!
