The Ancient Underwater City (Peculiar Woods #1)

by Andrés J Colmenares (Author)

The Ancient Underwater City (Peculiar Woods #1)
Reading Level: 4th − 5th Grade
Series: Peculiar Woods

Moving to a new town can be a scary experience, especially when all of your things begin to come alive! In this whimsical, thrilling new series, a lonely boy named Iggie forms an unlikely band of heroes to overcome adversity and discover the importance of true friendship.

Nine-year-old Iggie is the new kid in the town of Peculiar Woods, and nothing about his new home is familiar. So how is he supposed to make friends when he's not allowed to talk to strangers? On his first night in the strange new town, Iggie gets lost in the woods, where he discovers he can speak to inanimate objects. He soon teams up with his blanket, Faye, a talking chair and yoga enthusiast named Boris, and a pair of spirited chess pieces, and sets out on an epic quest to help his new friends solve their problems.

Along the way, Iggie and friends encounter the nefarious washing machine, Lazarus Gallington, and begin to uncover the mystery of the flooded town. Throughout his epic quest, Iggie discovers the value of friendship while also discovering what needs to be done to save the entire village--before it's too late! With a rich, enchanting story and artwork reminiscent of The Brave Little Toaster, Adventure Time, Hilda, and other children's classics, Peculiar Woods will enchant young readers with its stories of unlikely heroism, friendship, and adventure.

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Publishers Weekly

A mysteriously flooded town and inanimate objects suddenly coming to life set the tone for Colmenares's gently eerie graphic novel series opener. Moving can be stressful enough, but for nine-year-old white-cued Iggie, it comes with the added pressure of living with his mother for the first time after being raised by an aunt. Iggie is excited to get to know his mom and explore his new home, but strange challenges present themselves when, on his first night, Iggie notices a flooded town at the edge of the woods; is rescued from a late-night forest excursion by a walking refrigerator; scolded by a yoga-loving chair; and frightened by his blanket, which is carried away in a storm. At school, Iggie confronts bullies, converses with talking chess pieces, and befriends a girl, depicted with brown skin, who keeps a journal filled with unflattering descriptions of her surroundings before a jerky series of events leads Iggie and several animated objects into the woods to uncover the secrets regarding the mysterious flooded town. While the jumbled plot often sacrifices momentum for snappy one-liners, softly rounded illustrations rendered in an autumnal palette depict Iggie's loneliness and struggle to fit in, and personify the objects' bizarre personalities, to deliver a cozy adventure. Ages 7-11. (May)

Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Andrés J Colmenares
Andrés J. Colmenares is a cartoonist and illustrator from Bogota, Colombia, and the creator of the beloved Wawawiwa Comics. With more than 3.5 million social fans, his work is a sweet and sincere space for these anxious times. He lives with his wife and two children, who inspire him to create empathetic and endearing content for his fans.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781524879297
Lexile Measure
450
Guided Reading Level
F
Publisher
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication date
May 20, 2023
Series
Peculiar Woods
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV019000 - Juvenile Fiction | Humorous Stories
JUV008040 - Juvenile Fiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Action & Adventure
JUV008110 - Juvenile Fiction | Comics & Graphic Novels | Humorous
Library of Congress categories
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