DEXTER BEXLEY AND THE BIG BLUE BEASTIE ON THE ROAD

Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Beastie are at it again in this entertaining sequel to their eponymous debut (2007). One day Dexter and his big blue friend decide to hoot on their horns so loud it gets them thrown out of town. This doesn’t seem to faze the musical pair, and they continue hooting in the forest, where they run into the “tremendously charming” Sir Percy Pecket, who asks them to use their hooting to wake up his beloved princess. She has apparently been sleeping for days. The hooting does the trick, and she joins them on their musical fairy tale, the requisite dragon included. There is definitely a random feel to the narrative, and the plot points, like the characters, seem to leap out of the bushes, but the world Stewart creates both visually and textually is so effervescently silly that all will be forgiven. Hurried black lines filled in with blobs of blues, greens and purples match the dashed-off spontaneity, and typography as well as speech bubbles work dynamically with the pictorial compositions. Readers will be perfectly happy just to be on the ride. (Picture book. 3-6)