Scientist girl creates a three-headed kitten. Her and friend have to save their space station home from said kitten.
How could I say no??? I can't wait to finally get my hands on this. Good news for ya'll, there's three chances to win a copy of your own below! Check out all the deets, enter and hop to the next stop.
IMHO: Sanity & Tallulah
Sanity & Tallulah is as cute as it sounds and looks. I love the feel of the book. It's got raised lettering title on the front cover and binding with slick & shiny characters. It's the perfect size and heft while soft and pliant overall. The individual pages are smooth and the right thickness. (It may seem weird to describe this but my kiddo has slight misophonia and textile sensitivity. This book passes the test for her.)
It's not as colorful inside though. Besides the cover, everything is in shades of blue and red. I will admit to being a tad disappointed when I first saw this. BUT it works. It's amazing what can be done with this two-tone color scheme. This also reduces visual clutter and distractions and gives it a more mature feeling. And if you know the middle schoolers that I do, that's pretty important. No one wants to read "baby" stuff anymore.
The text, bubbles, and word flow were perfect. I didn't get lost or need to re-read as the panels shifted and neither did my daughter. There's a lot of different panel layouts and combinations, all working beautifully. I love how the panels with crowds uses the white to keep focus and show movement around our MCs.
Princess Sparkle Destroyer of Worlds is as adorable as can be. The girls are best friends and totally follow kid logic. They're "troublemakers" but they're not unduly punished for being girl troublemakers. There's science but it's the made up fun science. All the different spaceship styles and taffimatter were great to see. There's also little things like the tables coming up from the floor to conserve space that just really sells the worldbuilding.
I cannot put into words how great it is to see diversity reflected here. Tallulah's dad has a mechanical leg and her mom's right hand woman is Chang. I think her mom, Dr. Vega is latinx. Obviously, Sanity and her family are black. Her mom has scars seen in one family picture. A man admits his crush on a ~mysterious~ male hunk.
Tallulah's dad takes her brother Horace on this side quest, and the way he handles Horace's anxiety is so adorable and right! (And those hints about his backstory and the outer space conflict!?)
In the crowd panels, there's people of all different shades, body types, hair styles and headgear. There was definitely at least one person wearing an hijab, patka, kippah, and kofia. There's someone using an awesome looking wheelchair, like Professor X's. The red-orange shades, tints, and tones does make it harder to pinpoint ethnicity, but it's def not all white washed.
It may seem like nothing, but that little jolt of recognition means so much. I can't begin to explain it.
I can't wait for more Sanity & Tallulah adventures!
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This review was originally posted on The Layaway Dragon