A modern middle-grade graphic novel retelling of Beowulf, featuring a gang of troublemaking kids who must defend their tree house from a fun-hating adult who can instantly turn children into grown-ups.
BEA WOLF
by Zach Weinersmith
illustrated by Boulet
First Second/Roaring Brook, February 2023
(via The Gernert Company)
Listen! Hear a tale of mallow-munchers and warriors who answer candy’s clarion call! Somewhere in a generic suburb stands Treeheart, a kid-forged sanctuary where generations of tireless tykes have spent their youths making merry, spilling soda, and staving off the shadow of adulthood.
One day, these brave warriors find their fun cut short by their nefarious neighbor Grindle, who can no longer tolerate the sounds of mirth seeping into his joyless adult life. As the guardian of gloom lays siege to Treeheart, scores of kids suddenly find themselves transformed into teenagers, beset by the plagues of hormones and pimples! The survivors of the onslaught cry out for a savior—a warrior whose will is unbreakable and whose appetite for mischief is unbounded. They call for Bea Wolf!
Zach Weinersmith is acclaimed creator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (smbccomics.com) an online comic with over 250,000 daily readers and over 300 million annual views. He’s the author of the New York Times bestseller Soonish.
Boulet is the critically-acclaimed French artist and cartoonist, most noted for his self published work Bouletcorp which receives over 200,000 visitors a month on the English side alone! His work has been featured on Slate, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many more. He lives in France.
Brewster Gaines loves everything about making videos. The planning, the filming, the editing, and especially the feeling of watching his YouTube views tick up and up. So what if he doesn’t have friends to film with or parents who are home every night for dinner? He’s got a phone and a tripod and a lofty goal: A million views. But when he enlists the acting chops of charismatic new kid Carly for a ten-second video, he gets more than he bargained for. Her intimidating friend Rosa soon steps in with funding to produce an epic fantasy trailer, and before long, their tiny team is adding cast and crew. What started as a simple shoot mutates into a full-fledged movie production, complete with method-acting cosplayers, special effects, and a monster made out of a go-kart. That’s when Brewster realizes that getting to a million views may be harder than he ever imagined . . .
Sibyl loves possibilities, and at the Grand Mirror Hotel everything seems possible. It might even be possible that one day her grandmother will let her open the Book of Advanced and Dangerous Magic. Sibyl is the apprentice hotel witch. Under the watchful care of her grandmother she is memorising spell patterns to keep the hotel staff and guests happy. But the spells don’t always go exactly as planned: sometimes the spell to make the cakes rise works a little too well, and eclairs and chocolate cakes float up to the ceiling.
Book 1: STACEY CASEY AND THE HOUSE THAT TIME REMEMBERED
Book 2: STACEY CASEY AND THE CHEEKY OUTLAW
Book 6: THE ADVENTURERS AND THE SEA OF DISCOVERY