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ENTRY TYPE: new
WORK TITLE: Bitsy and Boozle Tell a Story
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://sgoetter.com/
CITY: Austin
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COUNTRY: United States
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PERSONAL
Female.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writes and draws comics, children’s book author and illustrator.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
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Goetter writes and draws middle-grade comics with her partner, Natalie Riess, and is a children’s book author and illustrator. Goetter and Riess created the “Cryptid Kids” series about monsters and magic, and adapted Erin Hunter’s popular Warriors series. Goetter and Riess met through drawing and posting webcomics online; they became friends, joined a Dungeons & Dragons game together, then wanted to draw their own characters, tell jokes, and create comics together.
Goetter and Riess published Dungeon Critters in 2020, a story of various animal friends on a Dungeons & Dragons style sword-and-sorcery adventure. Anxious dog Juniper, jokester cat Rose, burly snake Goro, who has legs, and impulsive frog Prince Chirp embark on an adventure investigating a vicious plant called the Devil’s Thorn that brings them into a conspiracy of secret identities, the royal family, treason, monsters, and a chance to bond in friendship.
In an interview online at First Second Books, Goetter explained that the inspiration for Dungeon Critters came from her and Reiss telling each other jokes, “but comics was the collaboration we were really looking for. Also I love to draw cute animal people…once it became primarily a collaborative story for me and Natalie I feel like our inspiration really broadened since our scope grew as well.” Commenting on the book’s rollicking pace, a writer in Publishers Weekly said: “The panels are busy, both crammed with visual and textual jokes and filled with near-constant action.” “For all of its bubbly fantasy fun, there are some grounding moments of friendship insecurity, which should resonate with middle-grade readers,” according to Sarah Hunter in Booklist.
Launching the “Cryptid Kids” series is The Bawk-ness Monster, about a mysterious creature, half sea serpent, half chicken, that saved middle-schooler Penny from drowning years ago. Now that she is moving with her family to the big city, she wants to see Bessie again to say good-bye. Penny convinces her overprotective mother to take her on a camping trip by the lake where Bessie lives. Penny enlists her friends, Luc and Kaylee, to search for Bessie, but they discover that the evil poacher, Alvida Scales, is capturing cryptids and imprisoning them in an underwater cavern in the lake. Everyone bands together to free the creatures.
Speaking to Comics Beat, Goetter revealed what she wants readers to take away from the book: “change can be a good thing! I’ve moved around both as a kid and as an adult, and it can be scary but it’s also always led to something better. And lots of other kinds of change can be good too.” This chaotically fun series has “Laugh-out-loud gags run throughout, with tender moments emphasizing relationships between characters,” Rosemary Kiladitis reported in School Library Journal. A contributor to Kirkus Reviews commented: “The human characters possess a lively, sometimes frenzied energy, with swooping gestures, huge eyes, and enormous mouths conveying emotion.”
In the educational chapter book graphic novel, Bitsy & Boozle Tell a Story!, little girl cyclops Bitsy and curmudgeonly wizard Boozle go on a medieval adventure up Story Mountain as they inform young readers about the elements of story structure and narration. As one of the three Point-of-View sisters, Bitsy explains story elements such as dilemma, tension, suspense, and peak, in third-person narration, while her sister Prima talks in first person, and witch Midi writes in second person. “Bitsy doubts her narrating chops, but encouragement from Boozle emphasizes the creators’ assertion that everyone’s POV is unique,” noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. In Kirkus Reviews a critic said: “The tabletop role-playing game vibe, coupled with the narrative concepts being put into practice, together make this a great fit for young writers.”
In 2025 Goetter and Riess adapted and illustrated Erin Hunter’s popular “Warriors” series into a full-color, three-volume graphic novel series. The Prophecies Begin launches the story of four clans of wild cats sharing a forest. House cat Rusty, with an unusual mark on his forehead, joins the ThunderClan in battle against ShadowClan, which is gaining in power. Rusty starts as an apprentice but soon proves himself to be a mighty warrior who is now called Fireheart. The graphic novel covers Hunter’s stories Into the Wild and Fire and Ice. Commenting on the snarling cats, sharp claws and teeth, and bloody melees, a critic in Kirkus Reviews reported that the graphic novel catches the tone and spirit of the original, and “the art really brings out the savagery that has distinguished Hunter’s work and perhaps accounted for its enduring appeal.”
The Prophecies Begin became an instant New York Times bestseller. Goetter revealed on the Warriors website what attracted her and Riess to adapt the story to a graphic novel: “Warriors has these huge, scary, melodramatic and emotional story beats expressed perfectly sincerely through talking cats. That really speaks to its readers! I was personally really excited to get to work with this type of storytelling… The setup of the books really encourages you to imagine your own stories, and I really hope our adaptation continues that tradition.”
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BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, September 1, 2020, Sarah Hunter, review of Dungeon Critters, p. 68.
Kirkus Reviews, May 1, 2023, review of The Bawk-ness Monster; November 15, 2024, review of Bitsy & Boozle Tell a Story!; July 16, 2024, review of The Prophecies Begin.
Publishers Weekly, December 2, 2020, review of Dungeon Critters, p. 79; June 10, 2024, review of Bitsy & Boozle Tell a Story!, p. 89.
School Library Journal, June 2023, Rosemary Kiladitis, review of The Bawk-ness Monster, p. 80.
ONLINE
Comics Beat, https://www.comicsbeat.com/ (June 9, 2023), “Preview Q&A: Sara Goetter & Natalie Riess reveal The Bawk-Ness Monster.”
First Second Books, https://firstsecondbooks.com/ (October 15th, 2020), “Meet Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter, Creators of Dungeon Critters!”
Sara Goetter website, https://sgoetter.com/ (June 15, 2025).
Warrior Cats website, https://warriorcats.com/ (June 2025), “Interview with the Writers and Illustrators of The Prophecies Begin Graphic Novel!”
Sara Goetter currently resides in Austin, TX, where she writes and draws comics with her partner, Natalie Riess. She loves drawing stories about monsters and magic and getting into adventures.
You can contact Sara at saragoetter@gmail.com
She’s represented by Steven Salpeter, who you can send book inquiries and other requests to at ss@assemblyliterary.com
She’s also on:
Patreon
Twitter
Itch.io
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PREVIEW + Q&A: Sara Goetter & Natalie Riess reveal THE BAWK-NESS MONSTER
Get your first look at the first book in the Cryptid Kids series today!
By Beat Staff -06/09/2023 12:00 pm1
In The Bawk-Ness Monster by Sara Goetter & Natalie Riess, the first book in the Cryptid Kids series, Penny and her best friends Luc and K are hunting down the half-chicken, half-serpent the Bawk-Ness Monster! Will the crew be able to locate the cryptid?
The Bawk-Ness Monster
The Bawk-Ness Monster will be available at your local bookstore and/or public library beginning on June 27th, 2023. In the meantime, check out this Q&A with Goetter & Riess, and be sure and read the preview pages included at the bottom of the article.
What inspired The Bawk-ness Monster?
Natalie
Natalie: Bawk-Ness kind of came together in pieces- we wanted to make a story about kids running around in the woods and looking at cool animals (a highlight of both of our childhoods), but wanted a little bit of a funny adventure angle to it.
Sara: Yeah, I didn’t go camping very often but I did run around in the woods behind my house, catching frogs and skipping stones and all that. The other big inspiration is actually the first season of Digimon, during the Myotismon Arc, when all the kids and their monster friends are back in the real world, and all the kids’ parents and families get involved. They get into real problems that kids have, such as Izzy finding out he’s adopted, and Matt and TK’s parents are divorced and don’t get to see each other as much, as well into the fantastical problems of Digimon running rampant around Tokyo. It left an effect on me as a kid, and now as an adult it was important for me to also have a parent involved with all the goofy monster adventures.
Natalie: You’re right, I think it gives the story a little more depth and grounds them more. Fantasy is way more interesting if the characters going on the adventure have relationships and problems (while chasing around a magic chicken creature, of course!).
What do you want readers to take away from the book?
Sara
Sara: I want readers to have fun with this Saturday Morning Cartoon of a book that we made, but if there’s a message I’d like to depart it would be: change can be a good thing! I’ve moved around both as a kid and as an adult, and it can be scary but it’s also always led to something better. And lots of other kinds of change can be good too, such as with Ronnie changing her mind about Penny, and everything with Luc.
Talk a bit about the art process for this book. The covers are so vibrant and kid-friendly! What was the process going into that? How did you craft a bawk-ness monster?
Natalie: We had a lot of help from our art director, Kirk Benshoff, and our designer, Molly Johanson! We sent Kirk a handful of thumbnail sketches and worked together to figure out the cover. The actual drawing process was the same as our comic work; Sara inked the characters, I drew the background and colored it, then sent it off to Molly. We were originally going to go with a more uniform type treatment, but they suggested doing a “monster” thing with the lettering and it looks SO fun and cool. Molly suggested that Sara hand-letter the title, which I know she had a lot of fun with.
The Bawk-Ness Monster
Sara: As for Bessie herself, she came out of a brainstorming session where I just made up a bunch of different fake cryptids, and a goofy chicken-headed sea serpent was one of the first things I came up with. (I’d be lying if I said Earthbound wasn’t also a big influence here, haha). Then I handed the general concept over to Natalie, who has a way better grasp on actual animal anatomy and creature design.
Natalie: I sat down and spent some time thinking, ok, how could we fit together two very different animals and make something that’s both a little silly AND a beautiful, magical animal that a kid would want to be friends with? We worked back and forth to balance these qualities with making her expressive, readable and fun. I think this is characteristic of a lot of the stories we write together- one of us makes a joke and we both laugh at it, and then we engage with it seriously for a little bit to see where it goes (usually more jokes).
What are you most looking forward to readers seeing in the book?
Natalie: We worked hard to give this book heart and jokes…a LOT of jokes. I hope readers have a good time! As for specifics…probably Bigtaur.
Sara: Yeah, I think I wrote a lot of funny jokes about Bigtaur. I also had a lot of fun with Alvida; she looks suave and evil with a “Cruella De-vil” vibe, but acts more like a goofy, incompetent villain than you might expect. Just a really fun character to write and draw.
What’s next in the series?
Natalie: Well, there’s a series name and a number 1 on the spine, so…you can draw what conclusions from that that you will!
Sara: We’re already hard at work on the sequel, which actually focuses on Penny’s friend, K, and her relationship with her dad. Also it’s a beach book! Lots of fun to be had with the change in perspective and setting.
The Bawk-Ness MonsterAnything else you want to add?
Sara: Bigtaur is real…And he’s my friend.
Interview with the writers and illustrators of The Prophecies Begin graphic novel!
Get the inside scoop!
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As we all eagerly await the release of the first graphic novel of The Prophecies Begin, let's take a look at this exclusive Q&A from the writers and illustrators, Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess!
1. Tell us how you started your illustrating journey…
We met through drawing and posting webcomics online! We became friends and eventually joined a Dungeons & Dragons (Pathfinder, actually) game together, but wanted to skip to just drawing our characters and telling jokes. We started making comics together as a short zine about our characters, and that eventually grew into making entire books!
2. Were you fans/readers of the Warrior Cats books before you took on this project?
Natalie: I remember reading some of them as a kid! I was a big animal fantasy reader and obsessed with Redwall for a lot of my childhood.
Sara: I was a bit too old to get into Warrior Cats when they first started coming out, but like Natalie I also read a lot of Redwall growing up. I got to read the books for the first time while adapting them and had a good time!
3. What made you decide to take on Warrior Cats?
We’ve always wanted to try doing some adaptation work (all of our other books are original works) and Warriors is such a unique challenge. Plus... we love drawing cats.
4. Which character has been your favorite to depict and why?
Natalie: In this book, probably Brokenstar, since I love a dramatic villain! I’m very excited for readers to see Cloudkit in the next book as well.
Sara: I also really liked inking Brokenstar, but Yellowfang and Longtail are up there for me as well! Yellowfang is an obvious favorite, but for Longtail I really like the bully cat design Natalie gave him.
5. What was your favorite story from the original books, and how did you approach adapting it for the graphic novel?
Natalie: I think my favorite for this volume has to be Ravenpaw’s journey. I’m very emotional about him finding his own destiny. Fireheart and Yellowfang’s relationship was also very dear to me, and showing them gaining each other’s trust was a good emotional backbone to all the action and adventure.
6. How did you make decisions about what stories needed to be cut/condensed/moved around to fit into the shorter comic format?
There was a lot of balancing! Rearranging six books into three while keeping the story cohesive and satisfying for each volume was a little bit of a challenge, but it was the first step of the writing process. We did a careful readthrough and made a big outline of all three books, planning out where each event would go and about how many pages it would take. There was a back and forth with Ms. Hunter to make sure we got in the things that were important to her, too.
Basically, it came down to 1) is this important to the plot and moving the characters forward? 2) does it set a mood or tell us more about the characters? 3) will it look really cool to readers and be exciting to draw? and 4) does it fit Erin’s vision?
Volume One was planned to adapt Into the Wild and Fire and Ice, but it’s a little more accurate to say that it adapts Into the Wild and about half of Fire and Ice. There were some storylines we wanted to give a little more breathing room and detail to, so they’ll be picked up in Volume Two.
7. How would you describe your art style?
Hmm…lively! Dynamic! Silly! Scary! Meow!
8. What excited you the most about this project when you first heard about it, and what ended up being your favorite part of working on it?
Warriors has these huge, scary, melodramatic and emotional story beats expressed perfectly sincerely through talking cats. That really speaks to its readers! I was personally really excited to get to work with this type of storytelling.
It’s also an honor to get to make cool comics for a fan following that is so art/storytelling focused. The setup of the books really encourages you to imagine your own stories, and I really hope our adaptation continues that tradition.
I would have to say my favorite part of actually drawing the book is the trees. I love forest environments. It’s like going for a little hike at my desk!
9. What’s something you think Warriors fans would particularly like to know about your approach to this series or your art/writing process in general?
This is our cat Tilly! She “supervises” and helps remind us what a cat actually looks like when we’ve been drawing for hours…she is a major inspiration on this project.
Sara: When we first started sending in character designs for approval we were told that we made the eyes too big and kitten-like on the adult cats…and I realized it’s because Tilly’s eyes are like that.
Natalie: As for our process…when I was designing Fireheart, I decided to make him an orange tabby instead of solid orange because those are much more common, at least where I live (there is a trio living in our neighborhood that I see all the time). I remember reading about an interview with K.A. Applegate (Animorphs) where she mentions making a character a red-tailed hawk because it’s a common bird that readers would probably see fairly often…inspired by this, I wanted Fireheart to look like a cat you might see out in the world and think “oh…there goes Fireheart!”. I gave him his fiery cheek fluffs to give him a bit of “shonen anime” flair.
Another little fun design fact is that Graystripe's big spiky eyebrows are an homage to James L. Barry’s incredible work on the series!
10. What are you most excited to work on for upcoming books in the graphic novel series?
Volume Two is already drawn and colored, so for Volume Three, I’m really excited to draw the leader ceremony. I love doing the glittery StarClan dream sequences…
11. Be honest, who is your favorite Warrior Cat of all time, and why?
Natalie: It’s hard to choose, but for me it’s between Yellowfang and Cloudtail. They both have very strong personalities and great expressions! Cinderpelt has also grown on me a lot over the course of this project. Outside of TPB, I like Leafpool and Jake!
Sara: Yellowfang for me by a longshot. Her whole arc is a reminder that some cats just need to be shown love and kindness for them to thrive.
12. How would you describe the TPB graphic novel in three words…
VIOLENCE. FRIENDSHIP. KITTIES.
Behind the Panels: Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter
Meet Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter, creators of Dungeon Critters!
Natalie-Riess and Sara Goetter
What initially drew you to comics?
Natalie: I was curious about comics as a tween (my older sister was reading a ton of manga at the time) and I was really into fantasy stuff so I picked up a copy of the webcomic Inverloch. This had info in the back about accessing it and more comics like it online. I read an absolute mountain of webcomics, which made making your own stories feel really doable, no matter how niche! I already liked to draw and tell stories, so it seemed like the perfect way to do that.
Sara: I was at a Scholastic Book Fair in the second grade and picked up Captain Underpants on a whim and was inspired by the fact that the kids in the story can draw comics, so I, too, can draw comics. So I started by making knockoff Captain Underpants stories but eventually moved on to my own original characters and fell in love with it. I decided all the way back then that comics were what I wanted to do for a living. I just loved being able to tell stories and jokes and sharing it with my friends at school and I’m happy I still get to keep making and sharing comics today.
What was your inspiration behind Dungeon Critters?
Natalie: Dungeon Critters was made out of us loving to tell each other jokes. We had a roleplaying/TTRPG group but, as cartoonists, I think comics was the collaboration we were really looking for. Also I love to draw cute animal people…I think we both do!
Sara: Dungeon Critters started out being based on our tabletop game characters but once it became primarily a collaborative story for me and Natalie I feel like our inspiration really broadened since our scope grew as well. Redwall is a big obvious one, but I also took a lot of inspiration from video games as well, particularly The Legend of Zelda series and Ace Attorney.
What scene or panel sequence did you most enjoy drawing?
Natalie: Hmmm….ballroom scene. I also loved designing all the horrible plant monster forms.
Sara: It feels like cheating since it’s definitely more than just a scene or panel sequence but I’m really proud of how the court case played out. If you think about it, a lot of that section is really just characters talking, so getting wild with the paneling and the acting and the lettering was really fun for me. It was like treating a bunch of dialogue like an action sequence; it was just so much fun to draw.
About the Book
Dungeon-Critters Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter’s Dungeon Critters is a middle-grade graphic novel about a gang of adorable animal friends on a D&D style dungeon crawl.
Quests! Plots! Evil Plants! Magic and mayhem!
Join the Dungeon Critters—a tight-knit squad of animal companions—on a wild adventure investigating a sinister botanical conspiracy among the furry nobility. As they risk their lives traveling through haunted dungeons, swamps, and high society balls—they also come closer together as friends.
Motivated by rivalries, ideals, and a lust for adventure, these critters navigate not only perils and dangers of the natural world, but also perils and dangers . . . of the heart!
By Team First Second|October 15th, 2020|Behind the Panels, News|Comments Off
Dungeon Critters. By Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter. Illus. by the authors. Sept. 2020. 256p. First Second, $22.99 (9781250195463): paper, $14.99 (9781250195470). Gr. 3-8. 741.5.
Madcap antics, lots of jokes, evil plants, and solid friendships are at the heart of this sword-and-sorcery adventure from Riess and Goetter. The eponymous adventurers--Juniper, a geeky, apprehensive Labrador retriever; Rose, a quick-thinking, fire-loving, jokester cat; Goro, a stalwart, steadfast, and comically blocky snake; and Prince Chirp, an impulsive, flaky frog and crown prince of the kingdom--embark on a heist to learn more about the vicious plant, a Devil's Thorn. But when that plan goes awry, they get embroiled in a much larger conspiracy involving the royal family, a noble look-alike, and, yes, world domination. The cheeky world building, fast-paced plot, and lively, quip-heavy dialogue are plenty of fun on their own, but the dense visuals, rich jewel-toned palette, and dynamite page layouts steal the show. Riess and Goetter make great use of the page space, cinematically layering narrative threads atop one another, using playful and distinctive fonts to imbue speech balloons with an impressive depth of character, and cultivating a vibrant sense of movement and tone with exaggerated facial expressions and body language. For all of its bubbly fantasy fun, there are some grounding moments of friendship insecurity, which should resonate with middle-grade readers, and a refreshing array of gender and queer representation. A pure joy to read on a variety of levels, this is destined to be a hit with fantasy-adventure fans and beyond.--Sarah Hunter
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Hunter, Sarah. "Dungeon Critters." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 1-2, 1 Sept. 2020, p. 68. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A637433498/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c758f533. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Dungeon Critters
Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter. First Second, $22.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-250-19547-0
Anxious dog June; stolid Goro, a legged snake; flamboyant cat Rose; and self-assured frog Prince Chirp are the Dungeon Critters, a wisecracking, villain-fighting, dungeon-raiding group of anthropomorphic friends who roam a magical fantasy kingdom. A clue linking a plant necromancer with Prince Chirp's lifelong archnemesis, the Baron, serves as an excuse for the team to don disguises and infiltrate the Baron's next soiree. Soon, they are neck-deep in a madcap spree involving secret identities, monsters and thieves, relationships and rivalries, trials and treason, and even a bit of arson. Riess and Goetter create a lighthearted slapstick escapade that prioritizes jokes per page while playing with the conventions of fantasy and RPG adventures. The largely queer main cast (Rose and June give off a will-they/won't-they vibe, Goro has a distant beau named Horseboy), with their complementary skills and personalities, create solid chemistry emphasized by cute character design and an amusing preponderance of meticulously assembled outfits. The panels are busy, both crammed with visual and textual jokes and filled with near-constant action, but this generally works in the book's favor, maintaining a rollicking pace that covers the occasional plot hole. Jaunty, funny, and fun. Ages 8--12.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Dungeon Critters." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 49, 2 Dec. 2020, p. 79. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A646895896/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fa5660ae. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
GOETTER, Sara & Natalie Riess. The Bawk-ness Monster. illus. by Sara Goetter & Natalie Riess. 224p. (Cryptid Kids: Bk. 1). First Second. Jun. 2023. Tr $22.99. ISBN 9781250834676. pap. $14.99. ISBN 9781250834669.
Gr 3-5-In this first entry in a new series, middle schooler Penny prepares to move from her hometown and enlists the help of her friends, Luc and K, to track down a cryptid who saved her life. Bessie, Penny's nickname for the Bawk-ness Monster, has the lower body of a sea serpent and the upper body of a chicken; she rescued Penny from drowning years before. Penny's overprotective mother won't let her out of her sight, so the three friends hope for a distraction during a camping trip so that Penny can see Bawk-ness. Trouble strikes when the group and Bawk-ness are captured by cryptid broker Alvida Scales, a sublimely villainous meanie, whose underwater lair contains a veritable cryptid zoo. Bright colors, bold illustrations, and frenetic energy match fast-paced dialogue, and the cryptids are a delightful mix of mashups, giving readers characters like the Bigtaur (half Bigfoot, half centaur) and the Yeticorn (half Yeti, half unicorn). Laugh-out-loud gags run throughout, with tender moments emphasizing relationships between characters. A flashback gives context for Luc's exploration of gender identity. Most human characters present as white; K has brown skin. Back matter includes an illustrated look at the process of creating a graphic novel. VERDICT A chaotically fun series opener that grabs readers from the first pages. --Rosemary Kiladitis
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
Kiladitis, Rosemary. "GOETTER, Sara & Natalie Riess. The Bawk-ness Monster." School Library Journal, vol. 69, no. 6, June 2023, p. 80. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A751405786/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=9f4aed05. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Riess, Natalie THE BAWK-NESS MONSTER First Second (Children's None) $14.99 6, 27 ISBN: 9781250834669
Penny plans to thank Bessie for rescuing her from a scary plunge in the lake three years ago.
Bessie, known as the Bawk-ness Monster, is a part-chicken, part-sea serpent legend residing in Lake Bockamixon. Penny enlists her friends--skeptical Luc and eager Kaylee, a budding cryptozoologist--to help her reconnect with the large, feathered creature. Penny's mom, unaware of the plan to find Bessie, reluctantly agrees to take the trio camping at the lake, where Penny and her friends don a fake Bessie costume and are soon captured by a group of cryptid poachers. The poacher's boss, Alvida Scales, a Cruella de Vil type, is a single-minded, child-loathing villain who has built a lair under the lake to cage the various cryptids she's collected and plans to sell. The trio of friends--and Penny's mom--heroically rise to the occasion in order to rescue themselves and the cryptids. The human characters possess a lively, sometimes frenzied energy, with swooping gestures, huge eyes, and enormous mouths conveying emotion. The bright backgrounds, dynamic speech balloons, and many open frames are equally energetic. Kaylee is Black; other major characters read White. A flashback shows Luc's evolving gender identity. Goetter and Riess provide an illustrated inside look at their process of creating the graphic novel, from concepts to thumbnails to inking.
A spirited mix of excitement and broad humor. (Graphic fantasy. 7-10)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Riess, Natalie: THE BAWK-NESS MONSTER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2023. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A747342250/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=11d7bd9c. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Bitsy & Boozle Tell a Story!
Sara Goetter and Natalie Riess. HarperAlley,
$19.99 (160p) ISBN 978-0-06-332662-0;
$12.99 paper ISBN 978-0-06332-661-3
A tale of derring-do serves as the educational vehicle for a lesson in story structure in this graphic novel yarn by collaborators Goetter and Riess (The Bawk-ness Monster). Beginning with a welcome to the Realm of Narration by Bitsy--one of the three cyclopean Point-of-View sisters--the pink-skinned storyteller introduces her two older siblings: Prima, who tells of her adventures as a knight in first person, and cantankerous witch Midi, who writes interactive stories in second person. Eager to begin a tale of her own, Bitsy--an aspiring third-person narrator--calls upon stout, mustachioed wizard Boozle to become her reluctant protagonist. Communicating via pictograph, Boozle agrees to help Bitsy in exchange for his "very own Happily Ever After." Using foreshadowing and flashbacks--storytelling techniques that Bitsy explains in bard-like ditties that address the reader--Bitsy chronicles Boozle's journey, during which he assists troubled villagers, gains allies named after literary principles, and encounters a fearsome antagonist. Throughout the fluidly drawn and brightly colored adventures, Bitsy doubts her narrating chops, but encouragement from Boozle emphasizes the creators' assertion that everyone's POV is unique, making for a memorable story-within-a-story and a noteworthy tale. Ages 6-10. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Bitsy & Boozle Tell a Story!" Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 23, 10 June 2024, p. 89. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A800405337/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c36111d0. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
Goetter, Sara BITSY & BOOZLE TELL A STORY! HarperAlley (Children's None) $19.99 9, 17 ISBN: 9780063326620
The basics of narrative structure, imparted through a humorous fantasy plot.
Bitsy, a pink-hued cyclops in medieval-style garb, is a storyteller by family profession. The youngest member of the Point-of-View sisters, she tells stories about others in the third person. The other person at the center of this particular tale is Boozle, a light-skinned, diminutive wizard tasked with ascending Story Mountain. Along the way, he encounters Mayor Dilemma, who begs him to save her town from the dastardly Gruffin of Clawmax Peak. She instructs Boozle to employ her grandchildren, Tension and Suspense, to locate the creature; he also makes use of montages, time-skips, and other tricks of the trade. Once Boozle's quest is through, he must meet up with Mayor Denouement in the town of Falling Action. You get the picture--the text is relentlessly, unapologetically educative. But there's a soupçon of mystery as to the Gruffin's motives, and Mayor Dilemma's intentions seem slightly suspicious. Readers will be eager to unravel the plot's true nature. Bitsy explicates Boozle's odyssey with zest, and Boozle's speech bubbles, filled with snarky nonverbal pictograms, perfectly telegraph his irritation at being Bitsy's puppet player. The tabletop role-playing game vibe, coupled with the narrative concepts being put into practice, together make this a great fit for young writers, gamers, and creators. The bright, bouncy, expressive cartoons give the story even broader appeal. Characters vary in skin tone.
Delightful, deliberate, and engaging. (glossary, pictogram guide)(Graphic fantasy. 7-12)
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"Goetter, Sara: BITSY & BOOZLE TELL A STORY!" Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2024. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A815560351/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bcf5c056. Accessed 20 Apr. 2025.
WARRIORS GRAPHIC NOVEL
THE PROPHECIES BEGIN
Pub Date: July 16, 2024
From the Warriors Graphic Novel series , Vol. 1
by Erin Hunter ; adapted by Natalie Riess & Sara Goetter ; illustrated by Natalie Riess & Sara Goetter ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 16, 2024
Skillfully catches the feral tone and spirit of the original.
In this graphic adaptation of the original series’ first two episodes, kittypet Rusty joins the feral cats of Thunderclan and earns a warrior’s name.
Making the switch from print to this tale that’s told through dialogue and visual sequences containing very little exposition may relegate the complex dreams and visions to wordless montages and make it even harder to keep track of who’s who in the large, furry cast, but the art really brings out the savagery that has distinguished Hunter’s work and perhaps accounted for its enduring appeal. Here, as snarling cats flash cruelly sharp teeth and claws, pounce on prey with a crunching of bones, and engage in bloody melees with cats of rival clans (and even, once, with a swarm of vicious rats), the feline protagonist, an orange tabby more distinguishable than most due to an unusual mark on his forehead, displays heroic qualities aplenty. He serves an apprenticeship under his new name, Firepaw, but is at last named Fireheart, decisively turning from the easy, domesticated life to embrace a harder (but far more glorious) role as a warrior of Thunderclan. Along with a helpful aerial map of the clan’s territory, the creators include an illustrated afterword in which they cast themselves as cute kitties to demonstrate their work process. The vivid colors, dramatic action sequences, and appealingly expressive feline faces will grab readers’ attention.
Skillfully catches the feral tone and spirit of the original. (alternate covers, character designs) (Graphic animal fantasy. 11-13)