The super adventures of Ollie and Bea: Otter-ly ridiculous by Renee Treml

This sixth installment in the sensational junior graphic novel series The Super Adventures of Ollie and Bea series (It's Owl Good, Squeals on Wheels, Bats What Friends Are For) is perfect for young, independent readers or for read alouds. The chapter divisions also help with making reading goals approachable. The series will appeal to fans of the Duck, Duck, Porcupine series by Salina Yoon, the Elephant and Piggie series and Renee Treml's other graphic series, Sherlock Bones. While accessible to a younger audience, its content and format will be equally appealing and relevant to an older age group. 

In this installment, Bea wants to play hide and seek and Ollie reluctantly agrees. Soon they invite their friends to play as well. There are rollercoaster emotions from everyone; sometimes they are good at hiding and declare themselves invincible and sometimes they can't find someone and they feel sad. They decide no one is really the best at hiding...perhaps they are all good sometimes. When two of the friends get into an awful argument, the others try to cheer them up with some jokes, but that just leads to another pair getting grumpy at each other. Then it's Ollie and Bea's turn to try...same problem. Luckily, along comes deer, with some super solving to save the day and help the friends fix their 'otter-ly ridiculous' problems. Apologies and restorative chats follow and the friends are happy and playing again in no time.  

Children will love the jokes and word play that come thick and fast ('I did nut think you would find me here', 'I guess this means I'm not the best at hide and squeak') and the story is told exclusively through sharp, fast-paced dialogue. Renee Treml's (Sleep tight, Platypup) full-colour illustrations are crisp, clear and sparse with a superb focus on the changing emotions of Ollie, Bea and company.

This is such a wonderful series that explores the real problems children have within friendship partnerships and groups. It's a beautifully honest look at those emotions that most kids have but many find it tricky to talk about. It also models wonderfully positive and uplifting ways to be a friend (and the fun of friendships) without glossing over the times when it is hard or uncomfortable.

Themes: Friendship, Problem-Solving, Forgiveness.

Nicole Nelson