Sardine in Outer Space 5
Ten new stories successfully show off Guibert’s intrepid heroes and nasty villains. Sardine, L’il Louis, and kindly pirate Uncle Yellow Shoulder assist a shy fellow in finding his true love, outwit Supermuscleman and Doc Kroc when the latter attempt to turn everyone ugly with a scamcorder, investigate the unlikely discovery of a cadaver, and greet visiting cousin Manga, who hilariously reconfigures their features to resemble those in eponymous Japanese comics. Among the other bits of delightful silliness is the hiring of a punctuation-reciting schoolmaster—school being desirable as the harbinger of summer vacation. Sardine’s fans encompass a variety of age groups, and Guibert’s visual-verbal textual puns will engage many;  the bright, loopy renderings of a subway system and its myriad denizens, and Supermuscleman’s absurd physique, will be blissfully familiar to Sardine fans. This wonderfully wacky combination of art and text is guaranteed to enlist new devotees. Grades 3-5. --Francisca Goldsmith