Graphic Novel Review: Squirrel Do Bad (Trubble Town) by Stephe Pastis

Posted on October 28, 2021 at 6:30 am by Gene Ambaum

Squirrel Do Bad (Trubble Town) by Stephe Pastis. Aladdin, 2021. 288pp.

There’s Wendy the Wanderer, who founded V.O.O.P. (Victims Of Overprotective Parents). She lives in a mushroom shaped house designed by her mother. One day she goes to Mooshy Mike’s alone (which she’s not supposed to do) and gets a moosy, a drink that has “the most sugar legally available.” She’s sitting on a bench drinking it and eating nuts when she meets Squirrely McSquirrel, who wants a nut. Instead she gives him a drink of her mooshy. Squirrely goes a bit crazy. The mayor’s office explodes. The squirrel-hating sheriff goes to arrest Squirrelly, but Squirrely is out trying to get more mooshies. This gives rise to and complicates all of the chaos in the rest of the book. Plus theres a chihuahua trying to woo the cat next door, an octopus who can write eight dubious news stories at once, and quite a bit more courtroom “drama” than you might expect in a book centered on a wandering kid and a sugar-addicted squirrel.

Pastis (Pearls Before Swine, Timmy Failure) has created a fast-paced graphic novel full of insanity. It’s one of those books I’d have loved to read to my kid way back when she was little, but which I enjoyed all by myself.