The Adorable Beastling (Family Comic Friday)

Family Comic Friday explores a magical new realm and dozens of fantastic creatures in the young readers graphic novel: The Adorable Beastling.

The Adorable Beastling HC
Written and Illustrated by Jonathan Rosenbaum
Published by Action Lab/ Discover
Pages: 33
Retail: $11.99

A new pod of beastlings have just hatched. There's 4 beastlings total. 3 of them are mean and green and fiercely terrifying the other babies animals of the forrest into giving them their food. 

But the 4th beastling is super sweet. She loves the other animals and she shares her food with her new friends. Can a beastling survive in the wild without being rough and gruff?

Jonathan Rosenbaum crafts a wondrous story filled with unique creatures and even more fanciful flora. I just want a pizza plant of my very own! The Adorable Beastling is like the fable of the Ugly Duckling. Only in reverse. This story also felt like Casper the Friendly Ghost with the amiable beastly being pushed into being bad like her trio of mean brothers.

Formatted like a hard cover storybook, The Adorable Beastling has a layout similar to a graphic novel; only there are no borders. The font is quite whimsical, much like the story itself. But I had serious problems with the size of the type.

On some pages, the size of the font is easy enough to read. But on other pages, you need a magnifying glass. I understand that Jonathan Rosenbaum was probably trying to to drown out the beautiful artwork with the narrative. But if you make the words too small to read, is it really worth it?

I thought that this book was so heartwarming. It was a feel good book that didn't pander to the reader by making things too sad like some other books involving lively creatures. Young readers ages 8 or younger will love this story while older family members and friends will enjoy exploring a brand now fantasy world with them. 

The Adorable Beastling is an instant classic. This is a perfect introduction of graphic novels and comics! I hope that this isn't the last we'll see of our new heroine. But a larger font size would be greatly in future editions.

Look for The Adorable Beastling in print and your favorite digital platforms!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

This review was concurrently published on Outrightgeekery.com.