Burger!

Gr 2-5-In this graphic novel, Clementine Smith, a vocal vegetarian, is suspicious when a burger joint mysteriously appears near the town dump and serves free food. The girl discovers that the place is a facade created by Jeff, an alien chef who has been in the service of a demanding gourmand for over 100 years. If Jeff can find a new recipe to tempt his master's taste buds, Gluttor will set him free. Following a recipe for "Forked Beast Burger," Jeff plans to fatten and then capture a human and boil the victim in oil. Clem saves a burger-devouring classmate from the deep fryer, convinces Jeff that Earth-dwellers are capable of feelings of friendship, and helps him prepare an alternative dish of bicycle burger with mashed mattress and a side of sautéed rags. Gluttor is pleased with the meal and allows Jeff to return to his home planet. With childlike humor, the comic-book format is right on target for beginning chapter-book and reluctant readers. The black-and-white framed illustrations set the mood, depict amusing aliens, and portray the action developed through the characters' snappy dialogue. A female protagonist and themes of problem resolution are icing on the cake. Young comic-book fans, both vegetarians and carnivores, will devour this title.-Shawn Brommer, Southern Tier Library System, Painted Post, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A graphic novel with plenty of gross-out appeal, featuring space travel, giant maggots, and carnivorous grade-schoolers. Suspecting foul play at the new burger place in town, vegetarian sleuth Clementine uncovers Chef Jeff's intergalactic plot to turn ""Forked Beasts"" (humans) into burgers to tempt the voracious but finicky appetite of his master, Gluttor. The quick-thinking Clem heroically rescues her burger-loving nemesis from Chef Jeff's menu and also devises a scheme to win the chef's freedom from Gluttor's culinary tyranny. This comic-strip look-alike has plenty to recommend it to older children, who will relish the gruesome black-and-white images of hacked and cooked maggots, the astounding number of synonyms used to allude to Gluttor's bulk, and the potential for violence: Gluttor promises, ""I'll tear off your head, peel off your face and fry it like a pancake,"" if Chef Jeff's recipe doesn't satisfy. Whether parents and educators will be able to stomach it is a different matter. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.