Review Detail

FLUFFY MCWHISKERS CRUNCHAZAUR KABOOM is a silly picture book sequel. In this book, Crunchazaur is very hungry and eating all the people and animals he sees. Needing a way to stop him, an intern calls up Fluffy McWhiskers to make the Crunchazaur go Kaboom. After attempting to feed it pizza instead, Fluffy and Potato have to make him go kaboom. They are hailed as heroes and statues are made in their honor - with a kaboom side effect.

What I loved: The illustrations are fantastic with a cartoonish look and lots of colors that kids will enjoy. The text is minimal, and the pictures help to tell the story. While Fluffy and Potato know that they will need to make the Cruchazaur go kaboom, it was nice to see them try something else first (giving it pizza).

What left me wanting more: The story was a bit dark for a kids book with so much color and potential silliness, with lots of people getting eaten/attacked and a lot of kabooming. Some kids will handle the dark side of the story better than others - but the messaging is also unclear as to what they will take away from it. The story also has a lot of smash-cuts, which feel like there are parts of the story missing, due to the limited text. Readers can generally fill in the blank, but this might be challenging for younger ones. It also will really help if you have read the first book to understand more of the context of these characters. Not having read the first one left a lot more questions as there are no explanations for the context of the characters/story.

Final verdict: FLUFFY MCWHISKERS CRUNCHAZAUR KABOOM is a silly picture book that will work best for older readers who have enjoyed the first book in the series prior to opening this one.