Linty: A Pocketful of Adventure - Mike Shiell

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AUTHOR: Mike Shiell

GENRE: Graphic Novel
RATING: 3.5 stars.

Imagine reading a whole graphic novel where the main character is a tiny ball of lint! What creativity!!!

(Don’t be confused by the genre ‘graphic novel’ – this is strictly for little children.)

So, Linty, who is a ball of lint stuck in a jeans pocket, is unaware of life beyond his blue residence. He spends his day entertaining himself with many solo games and exercises. But one day, some new objects unexpectedly land up in the same pocket. (Which, by the way, seems to be astonishingly huge; we girls will never know the benefits of such large denim pockets. Sigh...) Linty finds himself overwhelmed with these new visitors but soon discovers that life is fun with friends around. Unfortunately, wash day is around the corner and these visitors make their move in the outer world. What will Linty’s experience be like in the washing machine? Will he ever meet his friends again? Read and find out.

The biggest USP of the novel is that the concept is unique. Having an entire story with a ball of lint as the hero is definitely not something I would have every imagined. Kids are definitely going to have fun seeing Linty’s ways of spending the day.

The illustrations are cute enough, though Linty seems to be massive in relative size. But I get it; if he were smaller, his expressions might not have come out clearly. I did find the illustrations quite simplistic. Maybe my expectations were too high, considering that the author has been an illustrator-animator for more than 25 years.

This won’t ever be an all-time favourite children’s graphic novel but it will leave its little readers with grins on their faces. It’s silly, exaggerated, and funny, and nothing beyond. Because of the sketches dominating the narrative, this book can be a fun read-aloud for early readers too, as the graphics and sound effects add a lot of fun to the story.

3.5 stars from this adult reader.

My thanks to Kids Can Press and NetGalley for the DRC of “Linty: A Pocketful of Adventure”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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