Book Review: Beaky Barnes: Egg on the Loose by David Ezra Stein

 by Claire Rhode

            Beaky Barnes: Egg on the Loose (Penguin Workshop, $18.99) is a delightful romp. David Ezra Stein has channeled the energy of early Saturday morning cartoons into a graphic novel for younger readers. Reading it reminded me of watching a Pink Panther cartoon, where nothing quite made sense, but the hijinks were top notch.

            I have to imagine that was the tone Stein was going for when he started the book with a cast of characters and then uses them in an advertisements section (don’t worry – unless you’re the sort of person who goes in for wild infomercials, you’re not likely to want to buy his glow-in-the-dark sunglasses model).

            The story itself starts with Inspector Cobb, the town health and safety inspector, attempting to eat an fried egg sandwich and losing the egg from it. Naturally, he goes to a nearby café to get a new egg, where he threatens the owner with an inspection if an egg is not procured. This is where we meet Beaky, a giant chicken. She’s the tallest of the main characters, but she produces normal-sized eggs. This is never explained, but sometimes you don’t need explanations. Beaky Barnes takes too many detours to coherently describe the plot. A goldfish goes off to college and it somehow gets weirder, but it never loses its sense of joy or adventure. It can be easy for a book this wacky to lose sight of what actually matters – fun. Stein creates humorous, absurd scenarios and asks the reader to laugh along without taking anything too seriously.

        Some pros include:

·         -The art style. This is a deceptively simple book. It has a small color palette, and backgrounds are often left vague or are entirely non-existent, but each page balances itself well. It is always visually interesting and only rarely overwhelming.

·         -Subtle jokes. Like many Saturday morning cartoons, there are some jokes tossed in just for the adults reading along.

·         -Remember those ads I mentioned? They end up being (semi-)plot relevant. It’s not just fun, it also matters later on!

 Some cons:

·         -While I had fun reading this, 114 pages was close to being too long for me. For an actual child it would probably be a good amount of story and humor.

·         -May lead to egg confusion for some children. Parents may need to explain that most grocery store eggs are not fertilized.

·         -The name Beaky Barnes is similar to a certain Marvel character and his sister. My search results were confused while checking on some details for this review. Not an actual problem for the story, but check your autocorrect when ordering.

      All in all, I would recommend this story. It would be a great bridge for reluctant readers transitioning from picture books to more independent reading. Enjoy reading Beaky Barnes: Egg on the Loose – it’s a surprisingly relevant book, as anyone who has tried to buy eggs at a grocery store recently knows. And, more importantly, it’s an enjoyable comedy for the kids (big and small) in your life.

 Claire Rhode, a former children's book seller, is now studying to be a children's book librarian.