Making Scents
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Mickey isn't quite like his brothers and sisters. They're all stronger, faster, and have a much better sense of smell. That’s because his "brothers and sisters" are dogs—bloodhounds, to be exact. Mickey’s mom and dad are crazy about canines. Their dogs are the loves of their lives and their livelihood. So, naturally, they’re raising their son as if he was a dog, and Mickey wants nothing more than to make his parents proud.
Just as Mickey is mastering the art of sniffing, a tragic accident forever changes his happy family. Mickey is sent to live with relatives he's never met—relatives who are not fond of kids . . . and who hate dogs!
Making Scents, a laugh-out-loud graphic novel for young readers from Arthur Yorinks, with illustrations by Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yorinks's eccentric graphic novel opens as a couple that keeps bloodhounds finds a baby under a tree. They treat Mickey like one of their dogs, insisting that he learn to track like the hounds do. From Mickey's perspective (he narrates), the bloodhounds are his older siblings, and he idolizes them: "I practiced... and I practiced. I studied. I even prayed." (He's seen kneeling before a picture of Jimmy "The Nose" Durante.) Mickey's unorthodox upbringing means that he's in constant trouble; on the night of his greatest school triumph, his parents are killed in an accident. Mickey is separated from his dogs, his new guardians are awful, and it's hard to see how things will work out but, somehow, they do. Lamb and Paroline's quirky ink lines soften difficult moments, and their panels splashed in drab yellow, teal, and orange shine, especially in the scenes where Mickey learns to track (the elusive scents are traced in pink). Yorinks (The Invisible Man) pulls off a tricky feat; he creates a set of characters who are difficult to like, then makes readers care about them. Ages 7 10.
