Poppy & Sam and the Leaf Thief

Poppy & Sam and the Leaf Thief gives young readers, those who still enjoy a read-aloud and others who are newly independent readers, a new book experience, an easy-to-read graphic novel. When Poppy, who lives in a pumpkin in a large garden, and her friend, Sam, a panda who just wants to eat the strawberries when they’re ripe, hear someone yelling, they hurry to see what is happening. Basil, their friend, is in tears because someone has nibbled his leaves during the night. Poppy promises to find the culprit, and Sam reluctantly joins in the investigation. The mystery begins with interviewing the insects. Poppy soon finds out that each insect she asks quickly accuses someone else. As they have no real evidence, Poppy realizes they need another strategy. They decide to camp out near Basil overnight and capture the culprit red-handed. However, after falling asleep and the culprit’s striking again, Poppy is faced with finding new ways to solve the mystery.

Author Cathon provides a unique setting for a simple but charming mystery for young readers. The graphic novel format, with large half-page, full-page and double-page spread panels, enables the child to easily track through the narrative. The white space around the panels helps to focus on both the picture cues and the text bubbles. This is important for the child transitioning to independent reading. The playful illustrations are simple and colourful. Young readers might be unfamiliar with both the plant and insect terminology and an introduction to these garden features. Also, some of the vocabulary, such as culprit, interviewing, lurking, shifty and dense, might be challenging. Providing the young reader with assistance for such words would be useful.

Poppy & Sam and the Leaf Thief is a good introduction to the mystery genre. Children will enjoy following Poppy’s detective skills as she interviews suspects, proposes new strategies, follows clues and uses her creative problem solving skills to solve the mystery. The ending also provides a lesson for the young reader to think about as Basil tells the culprit, Earwig, that “Everything tastes better when it’s freely offered, Earwig. You only have to ask. The answer might surprise you.”

Young readers will enjoy this comic-book style storybook. If Poppy & Sam and the Leaf Thief is a child’s first experience with a graphic novel, it would be good to share it as a read-aloud first to model how to explore the narrative though both pictures and text bubbles. Poppy & Sam and the Leaf Thief will most likely be read several times so the reader can explore all the features of a story told in this format.