Ava the Monster Slayer

K-Gr 2—As Ava approaches her bedtime, she realizes that her precious stuffed animal Piggy is missing, left in the dryer in the dark and scary basement. With her parents preoccupied and older brother unwilling to help, Ava puts on her cape and tiara and braves the dreaded downstairs to fight her fears and rescue her friend. By itself, the story is nothing new, but pairing it with Felten's sketch-heavy illustrations makes it something completely different. Black scribblelike inking with minimal solid colors gives a gritty, graphic novel feel to the familiar picture book territory. Rushing backgrounds and swooping action shots of Ava's wooden sword show her literally conquering her fears. Stories such as these usually end on an optimistic note, showing that there was nothing to fear all along; here viewers see that there is plenty to fear in Ava's mind, but she now has the strength to triumph over it.