This is the way Pearl’s world ends: not with a bang but with a scream. Shelve this, the first volume of a projected three, with the graphic novels. There’s an abstract air to the whole episode, but the plot trots along smoothly, and Riddell’s distinctive visual style shows off to better effect here than in the cramped art for his Edge Chronicles and other collaborations. Children who linger over the illustrations, ink drawings with occasional highlights in red, will find all sorts of odd, precisely depicted household objects and comical details among the gracefully posed human and animal characters.

Here, she concocts an elaborate scheme to track down a gaggle of missing lap dogs and to trap a cat burglar-who actually turns out to be a cat. Munroe, collects odd single shoes and postcards from her parents (who are generally off on travels) and solves mysteries. 'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.A tale told in intricate, finely detailed pictures linked by occasional brief bursts of prose introduces Eloise-like young Ottoline, who shares a large apartment with hair-covered sidekick Mr. Monroe makes a bizarre gumshoe, with fellow cast members, canines included, just as wacky. An entertaining alternative for chapter-book readers. Monroe (think Gomez Addams’ hairy Cousin Itt) investigates the disappearance of several pampered pooches, only to discover the dognapper isn’t exactly after canine company. In an oversize trenchcoat, Mr. The story, a lightweight mystery at best, begins by introducing calm, curious, detailed-obsessed young Ottoline, who, along with sidekick Mr. The pictures here simply add texture to the words they accompany-but what a delight they are. Award-winning British cartoonist Riddell (the Edge Chronicles, with Paul Stewart) illustrates in pen and ink, enhanced by crosshatching and a smattering of bright red, to concoct a cast of quirky characters and amazingly detailed backdrops on which they interact.

This “novel” is probably more pictures than text. It’s not, however, a graphic novel in the sense of a sequential telling nor does it follow the model Brian Selznick used so effectively in The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007), where art replaced text to further the story.

Ottoline and the yellow cat book