Pablo and Splash

A warm welcome to a wonderful new comedy double act! Meet penguins Pablo, the sensible one, and Splash, the impetuous one, and follow them on the first of what will hopefully be many adventures. It’s mid-winter in Antarctica and Splash is dreaming of a holiday somewhere fun, warm different and exciting. Those are the pros for the trip, the cons: how to get there. Splash puts her trust in Pablo, sure her friend will find a way… Pablo decides the human scientists will have the answer and the two head off to find out how to make a seaworthy craft. Here Dempsey turns the dial from zany to out of this world as the penguins fall (literally) into the hands of a – we assume – mad scientist, accidentally steal her time travelling machine ending up in the Crustacean period – sorry, Cretaceous, that’s Splash getting to me. There are no beach bars or mocktails, but lots of hungry dinosaurs. In a final turn up, it’s Splash who fixes the space ship, after it’s been kicked about by a T Rex, so that the two can return for more surprises, happy ones this time.

Our odd couple have huge appeal for young readers and their relationship is beautifully observed and portrayed. As a graphic novel the book scores highly too – each short chapter full of excitement and humour, the action conveyed entirely via speech while the illustrations are lively, varied and full of character.  There are extra treats at the end for readers including how-to-draw guides and some real dinosaur facts.