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Finicky. by Karla Oceanak. illustrated by Kendra Spanjer. September 1, 2012. Bailiwick Press. 160 pages. ISBN:  9781934649244 

Glitch. by Karla Oceanak. illustrated by Kendra Spanjer. November 1, 2012. Bailiwick Press. 160 pages. ISBN: 9781934649251

The Aldo Zelnick Comic Novels are my favorite read-alike for the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, and recently, two more volumes were published: Finicky and Glitch. Finicky focuses on a change in the cafeteria lunches offered at Aldo’s school. Gone are Pizza Mondays and Aldo’s beverage of choice, chocolate milk. In their place, the school has introduced bad-tasting healthy options as part of a new program called FEAST - Food Energy and Sensational Tastes. With his friends Danny, Jack, and Bee, Aldo begins a protest campaign, begging the school to reconsider. As the campaign progresses, Aldo learns that his BMI is a little bit high, and he and his dad work to bring more exercise into their daily routines.

In Glitch, Christmas is coming, and Aldo decides to maximize his chances of receiving all the gifts he wants by composing a very long Christmas list and sending a piece of it to each of his family members, including his aunts and uncles. To satisfy Griswold, the gnome his parents have always put out to keep an eye on Aldo and his brother and report back to Santa, Aldo also becomes heavily focused on giving gifts, figuring this will provide the good Christmas karma needed to ensure he will receive everything he asked for. There are a few glitches in his plans, though, and what he actually finds under the tree on Christmas morning is a huge surprise.

There’s lots to love about both of these books, so I’ll list just a few.

Highlights from Finicky:

• The school’s cafeteria lunch overhaul inspires an art project, wherein Aldo and his classmates create self-portraits out of food in the style of Arcimboldo. Aldo’s creation is dubbed Arcimbaldo and graces the cover of the book, something he refers to in the story itself. I love that these books consistently promote learning, but in a subtle way, by incorporating interesting things into the stories themselves.
• The illustrations are filled with references to F words. Each time we see Aldo or one of his friends in an illustration, the character has a shirt on showing something different that begins with F - ferris wheel, fly, fly swatter, fan, funnel, etc. I don’t think this has been done in every book, but if it has, I missed it in Dumbstruck and Glitch. It’s a great idea, though, and I especially like that the reader has to discover it for himself. The book gives no instructions about looking for F words in the pictures.
• Aldo has interesting and varied relationships with adults. Karla Oceanak does a nice job of portraying adults through the eyes of a child. My favorite this time around is Mr. Fodder, the “lunch lady who’s a guy.”

Highlights from Glitch:

• I loved getting a glimpse into the Zelnick family’s holiday traditions, and I really enjoyed the way Bee used Griswold to try and guilt Aldo into doing the right thing.
• There is a wonderful textual and visual reference to the Grinch on page 28. Aldo talks about having “A wonderful, awful idea.” and the image beneath this sentence shows Aldo with decidedly Grinchy facial features. This series does a consistently wonderful job of not beating jokes to death, and this subtle allusion works so well. 
• Aldo, who knows very little about the Jewish religion, joins his best friend for Hannukah, and he describes the experience in perfect child-like terms, but without being offensive. I could imagine a kid like Aldo thinking of yarmulkes as bowl hats and calling dreidels weird, but I appreciated his realistic reaction to learning about his best friend’s traditions. 
• Each chapter begins with a picture of Aldo’s chocolate Advent calendar, with funny commentary from his gerbil and snake. These pictures keep the reader informed about where Aldo is in time, and also serve to number the chapters. I thought this was very clever, and kids who have Advent calendars of their own will certainly relate to the growing anticipation as each little window is opened.

Greg Heffley might be more popular these days, but I think the Aldo Zelnick books are consistently better written and better illustrated than any Wimpy Kid book. I am always impressed by the strong writing, and these two books really highlight the wonderful job Kendra Spanjer does with the illustrations. Aldo is a loveable character with realistic child-like thoughts, and his stories have lots of heart and learning opportunities, and they’re lots of fun to read.

Finicky came out in September, and Glitch was just published on November 1st. The previous titles in the series are Artsy-Fartsy, Bogus, Cahoots, Dumbstruck, and Egghead. The series has a website at aldozelnick.com where readers can find the A-Z Audio Dictionary of all the words Aldo has collected as well as information about the characters and creators of these wonderful books.

I received finished review copies of Finicky and Glitch from Bailiwick Press.

For more about these books, visit Goodreads and Worldcat.

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Dumbstruck. by Karla Oceanak, illustrated by Kendra Spanjer. October 1, 2011.Bailiwick Press. 160 pages. ISBN: 9781934649169

Dumbstruck is the fourth Aldo Zelnick comic novel, which follows Artsy Fartsy, Bogus, and Cahoots. The concept for the series is based on vocabulary and the alphabet. Each volume takes a particular letter and uses words beginning with that letter throughout the plot, providing definitions for each one in a detailed glossary at the back of the book, called “The Gallery.” The explanation for this gimmick within the stories is that Aldo’s teacher is obsessed with words and helps Aldo collect new ones in his sketch books. The main plot of Dumbstruck has to do with a pop art contest, for which Aldo is having trouble finding inspiration. While he struggles to find something to draw, he also realizes his developing crush on the new art teacher, befriends a new student who communicates through sign language, and endures a dodgeball injury.

I was very skeptical of this book when I started reading it, because I couldn’t imagine incorporating so many new vocabulary words into a fictional story without making it obvious that the author is trying to teach the reader their definitions. Karla Oceanak completely pulls it off, however. The words she uses are so carefully chosen, they fit seamlessly into the plot, even when they are marked with the asterisk that signals readers to look up the definition in The Gallery. Even more impressive are the ways she manages to work the letter D into the story outside of the words defined by the text. The deaf student in the story is named Danny, for example, a fact that I didn’t even pick up on until almost the end. The book is just so educational, not only in the area of vocabulary, but in the arts, sports, sign language, deaf culture, and even in romance. I think some books try to incorporate gimmicks like this to trick kids into learning, but Dumbstruck doesn’t shy away from the educational aspect at all. Rather, it makes learning all these different things into a form of entertainment that kids will be drawn to without being tricked.

The characters - including adults - are well-developed and believable, and Aldo especially is a very appealing protagonist whose problems and concerns are common to fifth grade boys. These books are very much like the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, but they have a gentler touch, and suit a slightly younger audience. They also share similar characteristics with the Origami Yoda books, and with the Big Nate series. Every library that serves Wimpy Kid fans (which, honestly, is every library, period) should have the Aldo Zelnick series on its shelves. I’m really surprised I haven’t heard more about them before, and I look forward to the rest of their journey through the alphabet.

Dumbstruck was published in October 2011, and the next book, entitled Egghead, comes out this May.

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