Pencil & Eraser: Lost and Frown!
The adorable duo, Pencil & Eraser, are back again in their second adventure! This time, Pencil is super excited that they will be joining their human Stella for her karate class. Joining… as in being along for the ride in Stella’s backpack since they’re her school supplies. While practicing some ninja moves, Pencil performs a jump – right out of Stella’s backpack and onto the sidewalk. Of course, Eraser won’t abandon Pencil and is right behind her. Now, they need to find the dojo in order to reunite with Stella. Luckily, Eraser brought along a map…
Pencil & Eraser: Lost and Frown! is the charming sequel to Jenny Alvarado’s Pencil & Eraser: We Have a Dull-emma! While in the first story, readers were introduced to Pencil and Eraser with an adventure in the classroom, in Lost and Frown!, Pencil and Eraser must navigate the outside world. They encounter a couple of helpful squirrels who are very curious about what type of wood Pencil is, escape a shiny arcade, and navigate the karate class to make it back to their beloved Stella, though they face one last unexpected twist!
The structural and narrative formats of Lost and Frown! are similar to We Have a Dull-emma!, which is a good thing. Alvarado had a winning formula in the first installment – simple panels, clear text, joke breaks – so it was good to see the formula continuing with a new refreshing and fun story. It’s notable that Alvarado includes a cute little table of contents and chapters, elements that are common in longer regular novels as opposed to graphic novels. Not only do they help ground the story and break up scenes for young readers, but they also familiarize emerging readers with elements that they’ll see in novels. That familiarity could make prose novels less intimidating for emerging readers.
In addition to the narrative strengths, Alvarado’s art remains the heart of Pencil & Eraser. The two main characters are expressive, able to be both funny or endearing depending on what situation in which they find themselves. The backgrounds are simple but effective – Alvarado utilizes gradients frequently when focusing on the characters, but she uses lined backgrounds to express movement or action. However, she is also able to draw a detailed background when she needs to convey where Pencil and Eraser are. Alvarado includes a how-to-draw bonus at the end of this book as well, which fans and aspiring artists will love.
The publisher’s age rating for Pencil & Eraser: Lost and Frown! is ages 5-8, the perfect age group for the Pencil & Eraser series. Readers who enjoyed We Have a Dull-emma! will love this follow-up, and readers who are meeting Pencil and Eraser for the first time will have no trouble following the story and will be thrilled to know there is another book in this series for them to read. The Pencil & Eraser series continues to be an excellent choice for emerging readers and for readers searching for another cute pair of characters to adore like Narwhal and Jelly. Lost and Frown! is a must for any library, as is its predecessor. Pencil and Eraser will bring a lot of joy and laughter to young readers.
Pencil & Eraser: Lost and Frown!Â
By Jenny Alvarado
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2025
ISBN: 9780593699812
Company Age Rating:Â Ages 5-8
NFNT Age Recommendation: Easy Readers (5-9)
