Food Fight! (Mal and Chad #2)

Gr 2-5--Mal is a secret genius inventor in a lab coat and Chad is his pooch companion and best friend. In this volume, which lacks sufficient background for new readers, Mal is jealous of the secret codes that the neighborhood girls use to communicate, and in response he tries to start a club of his own with limited success. Also, he tries to help Chad banish his nightmarish fear of cats but inadvertently lets a monster feline into the real world. Drawn with a clear, lively line redolent--but not imitative--of Jeff Smith or Chris Eliopoulos, the visuals are fun and engaging and allow for a loose, unhurried humor. The story takes a few interesting twists and has some nicely observed details to go along with the punch lines. The characters lack any real depth or humanity, though, and fall down on the side of more obvious, surface characterizations. Mal's crush on Megan is particularly flummoxing, as it takes Megan the lion's share of the book to do anything that isn't cold or even vicious. Well paced, with a good variety of both stakes and scale, and rendered with effective and emotive line work, the story will find broad appeal among its target audience; it's too bad that the lack of character depth will prevent it from finding a crossover or all-ages audience that the art might merit.--Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH