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BEA WOLF

Boulet, Zach Weinersmith

A Middle Grade graphic novel by a bestselling author and illustrator team that is a retelling of the classic story Beowulf - this time from the perspective of a gang of troublemaking kids who must defend their tree house from a fun-hating adult who can instantly turn children into grown-ups.

First Second ( an imprint of Roaring Brook Press/ Macmillan US) and Albin Michel in France to publish simultaneously.

With b/w inside illustrations.

Zach Weinersmith is acclaimed creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (smbccomics.com) an online comic with over 250,000 daily readers and over 300 million annual views. He's the author of the New York Times bestseller Soonish.

Boulet is the critically acclaimed French artist and cartoonist, most noted for his self published work Bouletcorp (english.bouletcorp.com) which receives over 200,000 visitors a month on the English side alone! His work has been featured on Slate, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more. He lives in France.
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Published 2023-02-01 by Roaring Brook Press

Comments

Weinersmith's richly evocative turns of phrase run the gamut from hilarious to heart-rending and maintain the flavor of the original without bogging the pace down amid the kennings. Boulet's illustrations imbue the shenanigans with gleeful energy and a touch of dark absurdity that children, seeing their own fears and triumphs reflected, will delight in. -- Kirkus (starred review)

Zach Weinermsith (who runs the wildly popular web comic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, which gets millions of page hits each month) announced BEA WOLF on his web site today with a terrific comic strip about how he came to the idea of BEA WOLF, and it caused the book to shoot up the Amazon rankings, and get as high as #8 overall for all books! It's currently at #14 on Amazon, and the #1 title for Graphic Novel Adaptations, which is amazing given that it doesn't publish until February. This is great news for preorders and shows the online reach of Zach's web comic.

Bea Wolf is: a) Beowulf retold for kids, b) a genuinely funny story in its own right, c) a pretty much perfect melding of words and the most charming illustrations in an alliterative romp through the oldest surviving English poem, served fresh and fabulous, d) Glorious, accurate, profoundly silly and hilariously profound. --Neil Gaiman

[A] magnificent graphic novel ... Long live the memory of Bea Wolf, hero to the oppressed and defeated, and long live Weinersmith and Boulet, faithful bard and illustrator of the tale. -- Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)

It's Seuss and Dahl's mutant offspring, gorgeous and darkly witty -Mary Roach, New York Times-bestselling author of Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law

As haunting, hilarious and perplexing as the ancient stories one hears around the campfire, castle or cafeteria.—Lemony Snicket

It's a madcap adventure that's a sheer delight to read out loud, and that would be plenty on its own, but this uproarious take on a classroom staple slyly introduces some --gasp! --educational elements (summed up in an entertaining author's note) boisterously demonstrating that not all historical literature is as bone dry as it might seem.-- Booklist (starred review)

France: Albin Michel; Russia: Eksmo Children;

Weinersmith's iambic alliterations will invite intense imitation from readers. Bea and Grindle's powers pale in comparison to those of artist Boulet, whose work with texture, moonlight, and distorted faces stuns at every turn. -- School Library Journal (starred review)

Taking the source material as a starting point, this lovingly crafted retelling sets Beowulf among bold suburban children for whom mischief and misbehavior are all. .. Leaning into alliteration, wordplay, and imagery-rich kennings, Weinersmith (Soonish) creates a joyously lyric, rapid-fire epic that honors the original's intricate linguistic constructions.-- Publishers Weekly (starred review)