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Summary
Summary
An elite crew has finally found the Lost Nuts of Legend. But will they get home before something happens to the nuts?
An elite crew has finally found the Lost Nuts of Legend. Now all they have to do is go home. But -- oh, dear -- if only it were that simple. Everyone is starving, the Star Nav is broken, the neighbors are distinctly unfriendly, and it was a really bad idea to stop at the Death Banana and ask for directions. Will the crew find their way home? And, most importantly, will they get home before something happens to the nuts?
Author Notes
Elys Dolan grew up in a part of England that consists almost entirely of trees and cows, and she was named after a department store in Wimbledon. She's never let either of these things hold her back and recently graduated from the Cambridge School of Art. She was awarded second place in the Macmillan Prize and was also short-listed for the Waterstone's Picture This Prize. She lives in Cambridge, England.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Dolan follows Weasels with another goofy, geeky spoof, this time tipping her hat to The Odyssey, Star Wars, and Star Trek, with a little Tolkien included for good measure. Having secured the "Lost Nuts of Legend," the Forest Fleet's finest starship crew is out of food, out of patience, and determined to get home. But after one of the ravenous crewmembers eats the map, the crew has to navigate the old-fashioned way: by asking for directions. Throwing the Prime Directive to the winds, the crew sows mayhem at locales that include a nut-free planet full of allergic aliens and a Death Banana populated with monkey storm troopers. Dolan skillfully choreographs her densely populated and detailed spreads with an array of compositional tricks, using short text blocks to help readers track the story. She shows no signs of slowing down as a joke machine: there are dialogue bubbles galore to giggle over, as well as visual nudges: note that the Vader-like leader of the Death Banana has a coffee mug that reads, "World's Best Evil Overlord." Ages 5-8. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Put a bunch of lost and hungry animal astronauts on a spaceship with the forbidden Nuts of Legend, and something is bound to go wrong. And a series of stops to ask for directions only makes matters worse. Dolan's comic-book-style mixed-media illustrations are peppered with speech bubbles and side stories that experienced readers will relish exploring. (c) Copyright 2015. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Seven woodland creatures in a spaceship are making their way home after successfully finding the Nuts of Legend, which imbue their bearers with immortality and invincibility, as long as no one eats them. That's a big problem for the crew, because all their food is gone, and those nuts are looking mighty tasty. To add to their troubles, hungry Beaver takes a bite out of their star chart, and now they are lost! The crew stops at a few planets to ask for directions, eventually landing at the Death Banana, which is helmed by a Napoleonic Vader type and an army of storm trooper monkeys. Though the plot's a bit slight, Dolan makes up for it with jaunty, frenetic cartoon goofiness, rendered in doodlelike figures on oversize full-color spreads. Speech bubbles and background antics add gleeful side stories and diverting jokes that will get little ones poring over illustrations to find hidden details, while parents will likely appreciate the spoof on sci-fi classics. Kids who love yuks will dig this merrily manic tale.--Hunter, Sarah Copyright 2015 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 3-From the author of Weasels (Candlewick, 2014) comes another fantastically wacky tale of space travel, hunger, betrayal, and...nuts? A motley crew of space-faring animals clad in Trekkie uniforms return from their mission of retrieving the Lost Nuts of Legend, only to realize that they are out of provisions and that Beaver, the engineer, ate their map. Their quest for directions results in a wild odyssey, culminating in an encounter with the dreaded Death Banana, crewed by storm trooper monkeys who try to steal the coveted nuts. Upon escaping and following large arrows that read, "Home, this way," the crew discovers that Beaver ate the nuts, and they must turn the starship around and head back into space. Illustrated mostly on full-bleed oversize spreads, Dolan's cartoonish drawings overflow with myriad visual jokes and speech balloons that perfectly complement the tongue-in-cheek narrative. VERDICT For those who get the references and humor and have the patience to pore over the dizzying array of details, this is veritable tour-de-farce that is sure to appeal to young fans of Star Wars, Star Trek, and general comic book silliness.-Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A space-adventure picture book featuring anthropomorphic animalsand nuts.The story begins at the front endpapersalways a plus if it works, and this does. Readers are introduced to the main cast of characters in baseball-card-like illustrations (Owl: chief navigator, etc.) and are given a cross-sectional cutaway of the spaceship they inhabit. After the title page, floating words in space that increase in size la Star Wars tell readers that the Lost Nuts of Legend have been found by the intrepid space crew, and now they are heading home. But, oh dear, the Star Nav is broken, and Beaver has eaten the paper map. The story continues with its Star Wars spoofs as the crew stops off to ask for directions at a cafe named Eat at Jim's that resembles the iconic bar scene. Unsuccessful, their next stop is a planet that is inhabited by little critters that are allergic to nuts (which really shouldn't be funny but is), and they get themselves into trouble when they board the evil Death Banana. The illustrations, mostly double-page spreads with speech bubbles, brim with visual and narrative jokes, and readers will be rewarded for perusing thoroughly. Happily, the large trim size facilitates this. Light and playful, with busy action and energetic spoofs, this silly story is a good thing. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
