Review: Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre & Rafael Rosado

Giants Beware! by Jorge Aguirre
Illustrator: Rafael Rosado

Release Date: April 10th 2012
Publisher:  First Second
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Genre: Middle Grade – Graphic novel, fantasy
Source: Library
Author: Goodreads
Buy it: Amazon | The Book Depository
Add it: Goodreads

Make way for Claudette the giant slayer in this delightful, fantastical adventure!

Claudette’s fondest wish is to slay a giant. But her village is so safe and quiet! What’s a future giant slayer to do?

With her best friend Marie (an aspiring princess), and her brother Gaston (a pastry-chef-to-be), Claudette embarks on a super-secret quest to find a giant—without parental permission. Can they find and defeat the giant before their parents find them and drag them back home?

Giants Beware! offers up a wondrous, self-contained world in the tradition of the very best of Pixar. Claudette and her friends will have you laughing out loud from page one.

I picked up this book on recommendation from Misty or at The Book Rat. I heard her talking about how cute she thought it was on her Youtube channel and when I saw it I just knew I had to grab it up. The first thing I will say is that I picked this book up at my library and now I really want a copy to add to my own shelf. It really is such a cute, fun story!

Claudette is a little spit fire that is bound and determined to find the Giant that lives outside of the village where she lives. Her village is surrounded by a wall that is built to protect everyone from a giant that likes to eat babies feet, at least that is the story that everyone is told. Claudette’s father is a dragon slayer that has lost his arm and both legs to a giant dragon and he is sort of the laughing stock of the town. Claudette gets her fire from her father. Claudette’s little brother, Gaston, is an aspiring pastry chef and he is scared of almost everything, completely unlike Claudette and her father.

Claudette ends up tricking her friend Marie, a want to be princess, and her brother and their dog Valiant, into coming on an adventure to find and slay the giant. Which of course sends the village into an uproar. However, when they get out into the wilderness, things aren’t quite what they seem and some surprising things happen.

The artwork in this book is very good. This is a full color book with lots of different size panels and some full page graphics. This is definitely a middle grade graphic novel with a very cartoony drawing style. I really enjoyed reading this story. I highly recommend picking this up if want a really cute, quick read!

My Rating: