The Daily Comet: Boy Saves Earth from Giant Octopus!
Despite seeing with his very own eyes a photographer who looks an awful lot like Elvis, a dinosaur egg that hatches, and a Sasquatch cab driver, Hayward refuses to believe that the stories his father writes for the Daily Comet are anything but a bunch of rubbish. “Hayward liked facts. Plain, simple, scientific facts,” and he figures all the wacky stuff he sees when he joins his dad at work one day is fabricated for his benefit. But how are you going to explain away the giant metal octopus alien that has just arrived and is currently swinging you around like crazy, Hayward? The father-and-son duo behind this picture book has pieced together an outrageous but warmhearted story of a boy coming around to see his father in a whole new light. The illustrations, though composed digitally, have a suitably retro sheen and a faded color scheme that adds plenty of panache. The resolution to the octopus crisis is as far-fetched as it ought to be, and if none of the kids believe Hayward’s zany claims, so what? Grades 2-4. --Ian Chipman