The Super Adventures of Ollie and Bea: It’s Owl Good; Renée Treml

I am always excited when I discover a new graphic novel, particularly for younger readers. This first in a new series is a great addition to the ever-growing catalogue of titles for emerging readers and is definitely up there in quality with one of my favourite series, the Narwhal and Jelly books by Ben Clanton.

Ollie is an owl with a sight problem. Bea is a plain old bunny with ridiculously large feet. It appears that all the other animals have a super-power except them. Squirrel has super-speed, Otter is a super-swimmer, Deer is super-stealthy and Chameleon is a super show-off. Can the two new friends, with the help of the other animals, discover what makes them great or will Bea be hopping mad and Ollie in a f-owl mood…

Ollie and Bea: It’s Owl Good is a sweet and funny graphic novel about friendship, individuality and discovering your own super-power. There’s something brilliant about every single one of us but sometimes it takes a friend to help us realise exactly what that is. Luckily for Ollie and Bea there are plenty of optimistic animals to help them along the way.

Like many children, Ollie and Bea suffer with feelings of insecurity and are self-conscious, one about their glasses, the other about the size of their feet. Watching them make friends and discovering what makes each of them special is otter-ly awesome as they turn their worries into super-powers. It turns out that big feet are great for super-jumping and wearing glasses makes for super-vision.

Told over six short chapters, the super-powered story is packed with puns, jokes and plenty of laughs - ‘hot-cross bunny’ just one of the countless times I was smiling and giggling. Simple text makes for a really accessible and easy to follow read and the full colour illustrations are great, I love the expressive emotions on the character’s faces.

Hopefully Ollie and Bea will be hop, hop, hopping their way into the hands of lots of young readers. This owl-some read is an absolute hoot!

With thanks to Allen & Unwin for this brilliant book.

Recommended for 5+.