Pilot and Huxley by Dan McGuiness

Scholastic, 2009. ISBN 9781862918122.
(Ages 8-13) With the clever, off beat humour of South Park and the graphic style sure to entice those primary boys who can never find anything they like in the library, this series will rarely be on the shelves. Word of mouth will ensure it is read and reread, with a plethora of fans waiting for the next installment. Produced in full colour, the 64 pages will be a hit with those wanting something immediate and funny.
Friends Pilot and Huxley find themselves in trouble with the Grim Reaper. He has changed jobs, death not being to his liking, and is now working as the Inter-Dimensional Hit Man Debt Collector for the local video store. Pilot neglected to return a video game and so the Reaper comes calling. He transports them into another world, where boogers and snot figure highly. Here they must seize the golden nose hair of the mountain giant if they are to be returned. With crazy adventures and jokes that primary kids will love, a broad group of kids will be found chuckling over this graphic novel in corners of the library and classrooms as it is shared with friends.
Being transported back means finding themselves in the wrong world, and so the stage is set for another lunatic adventure. Comic artist Dan can be found at Pulp Fiction, a shop in King William Street devoted to Graphic Novels, and he is an avid reader of comics, watcher of video games and movies, with many of these conventions and references coming out in this story. The launch at Mostly Books at Mitcham revealed that number 2 is due out in 2010, and another is in the pipeline, so readers of this tantalising genre will not be disappointed. The series is most suitable for middle primary to lower secondary, although I suspect a few adults will sneak a peak as well, and unusually for this genre, it is not violent or scary, just great fun.
Fran Knight