Buhduece and Swaysway are twenty-first century breadwinners. They’re ducks on a mission to deliver the tastiest, yummiest, best bread around town. Their specials, “clammy brioche” and “snails on kale” are the number one must haves for any party in Tree City. They load up their rocket van and blast off to deliver the goods. Throughout their adventures, the duo must avoid fowl play from three butt-cheeked monsters, rats, and creepy clowns. We’re left wondering if Budeuce and Swaysway will duck out of trouble in the nick of time… or will their gooses get cooked?
Breadwinners: Journey to the Bottom of the Seats fits the bill for readers familiar with the cartoon on Nickelodeon and younger readers looking for humorous, cartoon inspired characters. This volume contains four separate vignettes. The narrative arc is consistent across each story: Swaysway and Buhdeuce find themselves in a jam. Confronted with rats, circus clowns gone wrong, and suspicious policemen, readers must wonder, waddle they do?! Buhdeuce and Swaysway always come out on top, so the audience never really has to worry, just laugh at the high jinx and quackery of these wanna-be action hero ducks.
The artwork is bright and cartoon inspired. Lots of fantastical shapes, figures, and forms. Very few characters in the stories are realistic. Readers are told that Swaysway and Buhdeuce are ducks; one can hardly infer their species from their bodies and the depicted settings. The characters themselves are rendered as green beings with yellow hair and baseball caps. They lack the bills, feathers, and webbed feet of waterfowl. This doesn’t detract from the story at all, it’s just worth noting. Other characters are also depicted in a way that’s a fun mix of real/not real, allowing the readers to reconfigure their idea of what a duck should look like. (I would like to note that my favorite character in Breadwinners: Journey to the Bottom of the Seats is a well-meaning but meddlesome police officer who resembles the policeman from the 1970s classic H.R. Pufnstuf).
Breadwinners: Journey to the Bottom of the Seats is a funny, fantastical romp. Definitely show it to readers who love a good cartoon; they’ll loaf it! Look for volume 2 out in Spring 2016.
Breadwinners: Journey to the Bottom of the Seats, vol. 1
by Stefan Petrucha
Art by Allison Strejlau and Mike Kazaleh
ISBN: 9781629913001
Papercutz, 2015
Publisher Age Rating: 8-12
