Jellaby: The Lost Monster Book Review

Photo taken from: https://www.netgalley.com/catalog/show/id/39025

This is not my image nor do I own the rights to it.

            Jellaby: The Lost Monster, by Kean Soo, was another book outside of my "comfort reading zone". Not that I read children's books for my own pleasure all the time, but you know what I mean. It is a graphic novel aimed towards 9-11 year olds. I've never read a graphic novel before, so it was an interesting experience!
            Jellaby is about a girl named Portia who doesn't really have any friends since she and her mother are new to town. One night, after waking up from a nightmare, she hears a strange noise outside her bedroom window and discovers a large, purple monster walking through her yard towards the woods.
            Portia decides to follow him into the woods and befriends the monster. Soon she is trying to hide him from her mother and classmates while at school. One of her classmates, Jason, ends up discovering him after Portia tries to help him get away from some bullies.
            While at Jason's house after school that day, Jellaby finds an ad for the Halloween Fair and the kids become convinced that someone there may know where Jellaby came from or belongs. They devise a plan to take Jellaby to the fair, which is in Toronto, without their parents knowing that they're not really going trick-or-treating.
            While they plan on taking the train into the city, things quickly go awry...The story picks up in the second book Jellaby: Monster in the City.
            I think this would be a good book to get kids more involved in reading who may be struggling with it since it's not like a normal book and there is less writing and more pictures. It would also be a good book for kids who enjoy comics too. This might also be a good read for a child who is having a hard time making friends and/or new to a school. I think it's important for kids in rough situations like that to have characters to relate to in stories.

 Disclaimer: I received a digital copy of this book through netgalley.com to facilitate this review. All opinions are my own.