cover image Jon-Lorond Saves the Day

Jon-Lorond Saves the Day

Hanna Rasco, illus. by Luke Flowers. Brave Books, $9.99 paper (28p) ISBN 978-0-692-35223-6

Jon-Lorond is “not your ordinary little boy”—in his mind, he’s a pirate-fighting superhero, as evidenced by his red cape, headband, and boots. But Jon-Lorond’s attempts to take down a crew of rowdy pirates, led by a snarling captain Red Beard, result in one mishap after another. Flowers’s (No Way... Way! Are You My Dinner) dynamic digital cartoons introduce the lurking, marauding pirates into everyday settings, though the action sequences aren’t always easy to track—Jon accidentally hurts his sister at the library, though it’s not entirely clear how, and Flowers avoids showing the extent of the havoc the boy wreaks at the grocery store. Jon-Lorond’s antics land him in hot water with his mother, but he redeems himself when a “hideous, ferocious spider” scares his sister at home, and he wrestles it to the ground before escorting it outside. Though newcomer Rasco has a tendency to overwrite in places (“Jon beamed with pride. Another day saved. Another day of evil held at bay”), both she and Flowers provide an entertaining window into the enormous imagination of their overzealous hero. Ages 4–8. (BookLife)