The Chupacabra Ate the Candelabra
by Marc Tyler Nobleman
illustrated by Ana Aranda
Date: 2017
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: hardcover
Source: library
Like most goats, Jayna, Bumsie, and Pep's greatest fear is being eaten for dinner by the legendary chupacabra. (It's common knowledge that goats are a chupacabra's favorite food!) One night, tired of living in fear, the impetuous goats whip out their trusty candelabra and head off to find the beast and scare it away before it can find them. Little do they know that candelabras are the chupacabra's third-favorite food... and he isn't about to stop there. This chupacabra has quite the appetite, and the goats are in for a big surprise!
(synopsis from Goodreads)
This is a quirky little story about three goats who live in fear of a chupacabra. They decide they're going to scare him away so they won't have to worry about him anymore. They take their candelabra to light the way and head to the chupacabra's place. But before they can scare him off, he eats their candelabra! (Candelabras are his third-favourite food.) The rest of the story focuses on the goats trying to convince the chupacabra to eat something else--assuming, I guess, that goats are his very favourite thing to eat. But they're in for a surprise.
Given that this is a children's title with anthropomorphized, named goats, I wasn't thinking anyone was going to get eaten, anyway. But I still wasn't expecting the ending. It's cute, and it makes a sort of sense.
The pictures are very stylized and intensely colourful. Some might not find them to their taste, but I think they captured the cultural flavour of the story quite nicely.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Chupacabras might not seem like great picture-book fodder, but this is the second book about this mythological creature that I've read and enjoyed (the other one being the bilingual El Chupacabras by Adam Rubin and Crash McCreery). Who knew goat-suckers could be so entertaining?
Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5
Overall: 3.67 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment