Coming of age can be rough, even for the supernatural. In this humorous, highly entertaining middle-grade graphic novel, a witch, a wolf girl, a pumpkin head and a hijab-wearing ghost band together to Scooby-Doo a solution to an inter-dimensional portal breach.
A young witch named Abby, who is stirred and angered by a bullying incident she witnesses, is startled when her magic surges, causing her accidentally to open a door to another dimension. The hordes of Chaos Bunnies that are unleashed are cute enough... until they bare their fangs and begin chewing through electrical wires and decimating pumpkin patches. With backup from her loyal and hilarious friends, Abby labors to close the gap before the bunnies have destroyed the entire town.
The full-color digital art of webcomic artist and illustrator Mari Costa, who lives in Portugal, captures both zany action and the sweetness of friend, family and community relationships. Stephanie Cooke, co-creator of the Oh My Gods! graphic novel series, develops a fully-fleshed, well-rounded world with a light touch: ranges of gender identities and sexual orientations are unremarkable here, as are inter-super relationships. Paranorthern and the Chaos Bunny A-Hop-Calypse also touches on single-parent households, finding a sense of belonging as an immigrant, sibling dynamics and choosing good over corruption and power. Magical puberty is no picnic, either. Abby is facing weird new ebbs and flows of her powers and Gita the wolf girl can't stop herself from chasing the Chaos Bunnies. ("My mom says it's part of maturing into wolf adolescence and that I'll be able to control the urges soon....") We can totally relate. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor