Babymouse: Queen of the World by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
Jennifer L. Holm, is the winner of three Newbery Honor Medals for Our Only May Amelia in 2000, Penny from Heaven in 2007 and Turtle in Paradise in 2011. She and her brother, Matthew Holm, are also the creators of the HUGELY popular graphic novel series, Babymouse! and the spin off series, Squish (reviews of books #1 and #5 here). The series debuted in 2005 with Babymouse: Queen of the World. The 18th book in the series, Happy Birthday, Babymouse, is due out in April of 2014. As a bookseller, I watched this series fly off the shelves. As a volunteer reading tutor in a second grade class, I watched struggling students, mostly girls but also boys, embrace Babymouse! and feel excited to read, often for the first time. As a mother, I was ecstatic when my youngest stepped up from beginning to read books to the Squish series. I even caught him reading as he was walking home from school one day!

In Babymouse: Queen of the World, Babymouse discovers the Felicia Furrypaws is having a sleepover party and she is not invited. Desperate to get in on what she is sure will be a fantastic party, Babymouse faces some tough choices and I think this is another reason that readers love Babymouse and Squish. Kids love seeing characters in a tight spot and the Holms have a brilliant, subtle way of putting their characters in realistic situations that make them think and act, and not always in the best way possible. Equally, the Holms also have a wonderful way of showing their characters working through these tough situations and making the right choice in the end. The Holms also do a superb job of capturing the school setting, making it feel real and just a little bit more-than-real at just the right times. Babymouse gives her book report to Felicia in exchange for an invitation to her party and breaks her plans to watch "Attack of the Giant Squid" at Wilson's. Once she gets to the party, things aren't quite as fun as she had imagined. The girls just want to talk and do their whiskers and paint their nails. Bored and bumbling, Babymouse scorches the rug when she drops the curling iron and covers Felicia in nail polish while trying to open the bottle. When she overhears Felicia calling Wilson a doofus, she realizes what she has done and rushes out the door to make things right!

Holm is also the author of the very cool Year-Told-Thru Stuff series, featuring Ginny Davis, which is sort of like a graphic novel but with photographs of the stuff of life instead of illustrations. Holm collaborates with Elicia Castaldi to tell the story of Ginny's life through collage art and comic strips by Matthew Holm.
Babymouse # 17, EXTREME BABYMOUSE
and coming in April of 2014,
#18 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABYMOUSE!
and coming in April of 2014,
#18 HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABYMOUSE!
Babymouse #1 - #16