Ollie and Bea: Otterly Ridiculous by Renee Treml

Title: Ollie and Bea: Otterly Ridiculous

Author: Renee Treml

Genre: Graphic Novel

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 31^st January 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 64

Price: $12.99

Synopsis: Best friends Ollie and Bea continue to delight young readers in this super cute series: full-colour graphic novels that celebrate fun and friendship and the differences that make us special.

A friendly game of hide-and-SQUEAK leads to a big S’QUARREL.

Can Ollie and Bea help their friends settle the argument, or will they OWL-so have hurt feelings?

Join Ollie and Bea and their band of friends in their playtime adventures. The perfect book for young readers who love to laugh.

~*~

Ollie, Bea, and the Super Team are back! But this time, they’re all playing Hide and Squeak – and Bea is determined to prove that she is the best! That is, until everyone tries to make it fair and then Pedro joins in. Soon, nobody wants to play the game, they want to play something else but that all becomes an argument, and everybody stops talking! It is up to Ollie and Bea to cheer them up – but how can they do that if they’re arguing as well?

Another fantastic book in the Ollie and Bea series that celebrates friendship and play with your friends and how to navigate arguments – but in a different way. It looks at how you can come together to work things out and shows kids that it is okay to admit you were wrong and apologise – and that sometimes, everyone needs to apologise to each other when things go wrong during a game. I think showing that all the friends were at fault in some way was good – it is reassuring to see that sometimes it is a collective thing that makes things go wrong, not just one person, and sometimes it can be a variety of things that don’t work out.

Again, this is a fun series for all readers, regardless of their reading level, and I think it will appeal to many readers, as it is filled with lots of animal puns and friendship, and allows readers to understand what might go wrong in friendship sometimes and how to deal with disappointment and compromise. I think in these books, all the characters learn a lesson but they learn it in a fun way – it isn’t didactic so kids can enjoy it as a story without thinking about the lessons which is an effective way to get a message across.

This fun series will charm readers and it will be fun to see where this series goes. It’s a great series to help kids navigate a world where things can happen unexpectedly and in ways they don’t want in a fun and colourful way.