Owly: Tiny Tales (Family Comic Friday)

Owly and his adorable forest friends are back in this all-new collection of short stories!

It's game night at Owly's house. Only tonight, the gang decide to explore their host's photo album. Each picture sends the group of friends on a trip down memory lane in a series of 9 shorts. There's adventure, drama, comedy and above all, love in these tales that prove that Owly really is the world's best friend!

I've sung the praises of Owly before. Series creator Andy Runton developed this magical world filled with creatures that I am just in love with. My favorite character is Possey, an encouraging opossum who can wrangle Owly's friends behind any cause. In Tiny Tales, I was introduced to Scampy, the ever hungry chipmunk who will steal your heart.

I had worried for a brief while that there weren't to be any new Owly stories as Runton had gone an a bit of a long hiatus. Thankfully, that break seems to be over with this return of Owly and friends. Though I have got to wonder, why hasn't Owly received the animated series treatment?! Andy Runton's comics would make a great pre-school series that easily could be at home on Netflix or Nick Jr.

I feel like Owly has grown up a bit with this revival title. Maybe I'm wrong. But I seem to remember all of the characters speaking in pictograms with just the occasional word to help along the narrative. Here, Owly still speaks in pictures but his friends now all seem to speak a kind of pigeon dialect of pics and words. Plus, there's an unseen narrator who helps the stories to progress. If this is a new direction for the series, then I am all in.

One thing else that I noticed with Owly's return: the art. I've long since been a fan of it. But gosh darn it, it appears that Andy Runton's work has just gotten even more polished and oh that much more adorable. Runton's smaller characters such as Possey and Scampy look like what you'd imagine Charles Shulz's Peanuts characters would appear as if they were all woodland creatures. When Runton illustrates those characters with their tiny paws pressed together and their faces are glowing with joy, it just melts my heart and I wholeheartedly believe that it will melt the hearts of the young reader in your lives too 

Ultimate fun for readers ages 5-9. The pictograms can make the stories fun for younger readers. However, the story 'Breakin the Ice' where Owly accidentally falls through a frozen pond may be a little too intense for them. Thankfully, it is an episode that ends with a happy ending.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.