Magic Pickle and the Garden of Evil
Written and illustrated by Scott Morse
JoJo has been living around a Super Hero vegetable for too long. She tricks Magic Pickle into cleaning her room. Her latest scheme is too much! Her new class project is a school garden and she would love to grow a crop of Super Hero vegetables. When Magic Pickle refuses, she sneaks into his top secret lab and steals his amazing super-grow juice. Overnight the regular seeds they plant turn into a new generation of Super powerful villains. The only way to fight them is to unleash an army of rabbits. There is no evidence of the epic struggle between girl and vegetable-kind, but neither is there anything left of the school garden.
This book just might be silly enough for second graders and challenge their reading skills in the process. It is a combination of graphic and regular novels. Day to day life with Magic Pickle has grown boring so JoJo is constantly tricking Magic Pickle into doing things he thinks are an unfair use of his power. JoJo’s attitude of entitlement to a Super-Hero’s magic products is irritating and she gets out of her dilemma far too easily. Characterization is shallow and the story is slight but with a Super-Hero Pickle, second graders are more interested in silly action anyway. At the upper end of second grade reading level, second graders may need help with comprehension or will need to hear the book read aloud (if the adult can stand it).
There are those reluctant boy readers who will go for this kind of book. The graphic novel illustrations and style of storytelling can help a reader feel like he is reading a book by himself. Boys typically will not read books with a girl main character, but the way JoJo is drawn and the way she acts, they will forget she’s a girl.
Read other Magic Pickle graphic novels:
- Magic Pickle graphic novel
- Magic Pickle v. the Egg Poacher
- Magic Pickle and the Creature from the Black Legume
TITLE: Magic Pickle and the Garden of Evil- AUTHOR: Scott Morse
- ILLUSTRATOR: Scott Morse
- PUBLISHER: 2009, Graphix/Scholastic, 134 pages, graphic novel
- REVIEWER: Risa Brown
- ISBN: 978-1-4420-2659-9
