Comics authors Mina Elwell and A.C. Medina and illustrator Kit Wallis (Quested Volume 1) deliver dizzy action, hilarious monsters, and a spooky mystery in the cinematic and madcap middle-grade graphic novel Undercover Monster.
Mia, a monster with a mostly human body and a massive pink right arm that ends in a claw, gets thrown out of monster school for her "record of violent outbursts." The Monster Schoolboard Association uses her expulsion as an opportunity: they send her to a human school to find a Dream Eater who is "siphoning the spirit" of the student body and staff. Mia thinks finding the monster will be easy, but it turns out lots of monsters attend this human school. She skeptically befriends Romero, a zombie, and school theater stagehand Harriet, a pale, dark-haired, shy girl. Mia, Romero, and Harriet begin working together, and Mia's new friends excitedly proclaim themselves the Monster Club. As the trio crosses suspects off their list, punches fly, cries of fear are yelped, and nightmares haunt the halls. Basically, Mia's punishment is a blast.
Seasoned creators Elwell, Medina, Wallis and letterer Dave Lentz produce a dynamic and creepy mystery filled with kinetic illustrations. Wallis's art is a treat reminiscent of Invader Zim and similar after-school cartoons; panels dynamically overlap and change shape from scene to scene, each one populated with layers of monsters in increasingly absurd situations. Extremely silly with a behemoth heart of gold, Undercover Monster will surely have readers screaming for more. --Luis Rendon, freelance reviewer