Benny and Penny

Benny and Penny
Written and illustrated by Geoffrey Hayes
Published by Toon Books

Benny and Penny is about two mice who live in the woods who are brother and sister. Benny likes to dress up and play pirates and Penny is always following him around, asking where he is and trying to catch up to him so she can play with him. He wants to play by himself and thinks that she’s pretty annoying so he never tells her where he is and she just follows him on her little mini scooter.

I liked when Penny hits the box that Benny is pretending is a pirate ship and she is coming up the other side of the box and it tips over and they both fall off a hill and land in the leaves. Benny yells for him mom and starts running away from Penny but she chases after him. He hides in a tree and runs away again when she gets close and then hides in a cave until a big spider comes along. My favorite part was when he was hiding under a hat and says that he’s just an old man. When Penny finds Benny he says she’s a dumb little sister and she starts to cry. He doesn’t want to get in trouble with her crying so grabs another box and tells her to play in that one and when she gets in he leaves her by herself and starts to play his pirate ship game again.

When he gets finished playing he goes to find Penny but she isn’t in the box anymore. He looks everywhere and can’t find her. Finally he does find her and she says she left to go pee-pee. Then she says they should both hide but he’s worried if they could get lost. She tells him that he shouldn’t worry because they won’t get lost and he feels better but then a giant mosquito comes along and scares them both. Penny becomes brave and chases the giant bug away and that makes Benny really happy.

They run back and go to the pirate ship together and become friends and Benny tells Penny that he was just pretending that she was dumb. The lesson is that you shouldn’t call your sister or brother names because it’s not nice. They could get bigger and beat you up if you tease them when they’re little and it’s also not good to be mean to people you care about even as jokes. I think the art in the book was pretty good and the guy draws the things in the forest well. I like how he makes their little house and the tress and all of the nature stuff. I think that the mice should have been colored a bit different, though. I think their fur would have been easier to see if it wasn’t so dark and maybe colored gray. I like how he drew Penny’s scooter and the giant mosquito, too.

It’s a good story that is made out to look kind of like a kids book but it can be a comic book as well.

My Rating: 9 out of 10