Joey Fly, Private Eye, in Creepy Crawly Crime

by | May 6, 2009 | 0 comments

Sometimes it’s hard to pull off a particular style when writing for kids. Are the kids going to get it? Will they understand the nuances of word choice, the significance of color schemes, the jokes? Aaron Reynolds and Neil Numberman take film noir, apply some schtick, and make what can be a dry sub-genre work for elementary school-age kids.

Private investigator, Joey Fly, gets more than he bargained for when he takes on a young scorpion as his new assistant. Sammy Stingtail is brash, clumsy, and completely clueless as to how to work a case. When the lovely and curvaceous Delilah, a swallowtail butterfly, turns to Joey for help in finding her missing diamond pencil box, Sammy gets the team fired when he accuses her of being guilty of the crime without first looking at any evidence. Joey keeps the investigation alive, conducting interviews with two of Delilah’s ex-friends and teaching Sammy the ropes as the evidence builds.

Set in a film noir world much like the one seen in Bruce Hale’s Chet Gecko series, Joey Fly, Private Eye is played much more obviously for laughs….

This review was originally posted at Good Comics for Kids. Please visit the original post to see the rest of the review.

Joey Fly, Private Eye, in Creepy Crawly Crime
Author: Aaron Reynolds
Artist: Neil Numberman
ISBN: 978-0-8050-8786-4
Henry Holt, April 2009

Pedro and Me: friendship, loss, and what I learned

by | Jul 24, 2002 | 0 comments

You all know the tag line of The Real World: Seven people are chosen to live in a house to find out what’s “real.” In 1993, in San Francisco, the world was given an unexpected, and perhaps unasked for, gift — through watching this hyped reality soap opera, we all got to live with someone who had AIDS. That young man, Pedro Zamora, touched the entire country — but for author Judd Winick, fellow cast member, he was simply one of his best friends. Here he relates the story around and after the television show and the life-changing effect Pedro had on him. This is the book that got me really into graphic novels. Like Maus, it has won awards, and like Maus, it made me both laugh and cry. If you must read only one graphic novel, this is the one.

Pedro and Me: Friendship, Loss, and What I Learned
ISBN: 9780805089646
By Judd Winick
Henry Holt & Company, 2009 (new edition)