Beak & Ally: Unlikely Friends by Norm Feuti

Ally the alligator is perfectly happy being alone . . . until one day a noisy bird named Beak lands on her snout.

Beak thinks Ally is lonely and needs a friend. He has all sorts of friendship goals in mind, like riding bikes together, going to the movies together, and even solving mysteries together! But when a Long-Billed Party Pooper crashes Beak's nest-warming party, Ally decides to show Beak something important to her: sticking up for what's right.

Newly independent readers will be thrilled to have a graphic novel series written for them with stories aimed at their interest level while not having to cope with too much text. Well titled Unlikely Friends this combination of an alligator and a bird as a team is hard to imagine but it does set the scene for some interesting adventures. So while the theme of the story is not new, its format that is so similar to that which older siblings are enjoying will appeal.

Barbara Braxton