In a series of prior adventures, the residents of Noodleham have managed to fend off the predations of the nefarious Zoodles, and even reach a slowly warming detente. But when the Zoodles’ leader, Cloodle the Grand Roodle, is booed at a concert, he retaliates by kidnapping beloved Droodle the Poodle—prompting the community to come together and save her.
Steven Joseph’s ESCAPE FROM ZOODLETRAZ! has all the hallmarks of its predecessors. It’s a quick-moving, whacky bit of action largely buoyed up on increasingly absurd—dare we say, oodles of—noodle-based wordplay. The maximalist humor often hits with the playful fun of the verbal jokes while slapping on an extra note of absurdity, as when the text recalls how the residents of Noodleham “helped remove all the groodle from Earth’s oceans, even the wet ones!” Andy Case’s illustrations enthusiastically, and hilariously, support the action. Sometimes it’s simple, fun details, like a punk-rock haircut in a crowd of bystanders; sometimes it’s an unremarked-upon visual gag, like a news correspondent in a full suit and tie, standing waist-deep in water to report on a water park; sometimes it’s the laugh-out-loud image of Pepe and Tina teaching tango lessons, while a sharktopus in a tutu (you read that right) watches intently. The style is obviously meant for rapid iteration, but it’s bold, colorful, and active, which is what the story demands. True to its spirit of pure fun, the book also includes a few activity pages at the end, including coloring pages, mazes, and more.
However, as the most recent in a series, ESCAPE FROM ZOODLETRAZ! does start to show some strain. The humor is maximalist, but so is the storytelling. The text spends about ten pages—nearly a fifth of the story’s length—on recapping previous adventures, to establish the backstory and worldbuilding. There’s nothing wrong with this, per se, but it is unusual for the medium. Especially in a text that relies so heavily on speed, it’s an early stumbling block. Bringing in these pre-established elements also makes it a little hard to focus. A text like ESCAPE FROM ZOODLETRAZ! doesn’t need a Hemingway-style trim, but it still might benefit from losing a few characters. There’s a lot of group action where any individual doesn’t do all that much, and making some decisions about that would free up more space for fun, interesting additions. This reviewer, for instance, was excited for more about Andy Dandy Doodle and Noodleham’s folk revival scene, but new additions like these are lost in the relentless swirl of new and returning characters, food-based propulsion technologies, and general whackiness.
Nonetheless, if general whackiness is the reader’s desire, ESCAPE FROM ZOODLETRAZ! will still deliver in spades.
Steven Joseph’s SNOODLES IN SPACE: ESCAPE FROM ZOODLETRAZ! (illus. Andy Care) is exactly as zany and weird as it wants to be, though that doesn’t always make for a satisfying reading experience.
~ Dan Accardi for IndieReader