Kevin Sherry, author of popular picture books like I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean, branched out to chapter books in 2014 with the Yeti Files, an illustrated beginning chapter book series. This year he’s started a new, more heavily illustrated series, featuring a raccoon—in sneakers!
Remy Sneakers loves to collect things. When a mysterious thief, who looks just like a raccoon, is seen breaking into the museum, even his best friend Stix the mouse thinks he might be responsible. Remy sets out to clear his name and defeat the villain, but first he’ll have to get some help. He visits Mouseville, Rat City, and Pigeon Plaza, but only finds a few creatures willing to help. Meanwhile, the villain is striking again and soon Remy and his companions will be up against an army of Robo-Rats. Can Remy clear his name, save the city, and unite the mice, rats, and pigeons?
Sherry’s black and white illustrations move the story along briskly and include action shots of Remy and his friends fighting the robots, as well as portraits of the different creatures living in the city. There are galleries of the mice from Mouseville, a sample of rats, and a flock of pigeons. All have quirky cartoon faces and names that describe their peculiarities. The human faces are not as cartoonish as the animals. The female mayor has a darkly shadowed face with heavily lined nose and shaved undercut. The wicked toymaker is extremely creepy, with bagged eyes and thinning hair. The shading of the black and white illustrations seems to intensify the creepiness of the humans. The art is mostly full page with speech balloons and explanatory sentences; there are no traditional panels of the artwork, just the occasional square portraits or pictures of random items. The robots have multiple captions showing their different accessories. Although the book is primarily illustrations, it’s still more an illustrated chapter book than a comic book in my opinion.
The layout will be challenging for beginning readers, since they will have to follow both the art and the scattered words, but intermediate readers should have no problem. The black and white art, especially the creepy humans, may put off some readers, especially since kids often expect color in their comics. However, going by the popularity of Sherry’s previous works and the fun plot of this new series—animals working together! villainous robots! mysteries galore!—it should find a ready audience in libraries and schools. The lesson of working together and valuing friendship is touched on but not over-emphasized and readers looking for a funny new series are sure to enjoy this tale of city critters.
Remy Sneakers vs. the Robo-Rats, vol. 1
by Kevin Sherry
ISBN: 9781338034608
Scholastic, 2017
Publisher Age Rating: 7-11
