HAYLEE AND COMET

Two unlikely friends crash into each other’s orbit.

Haylee makes wishes at every opportunity. Her favorite method is wishing on falling stars—if she is quick enough to see them. When Haylee has a “very special wish” one day, she looks for a star and wishes “as hard as she could” to find a friend. An anthropomorphic comet (aptly named Comet) plummets down and reveals having made the very same wish. They become fast friends in the two short stories that follow. In “The Friend Ship” the pair finds a “build-your-own Friend Ship kit” and gets to work, each building half of the vehicle. In “The Surprise,” Haylee gifts Comet with a flower to celebrate their “three-day friend-iversary,” and they build a garden of comets. Marcero’s intricate linework and lush yellows and blues effectively translate her skills as a picture-book illustrator into the graphic early reader format. But the night scenes are where her use of colors and shadows flies off the charts. Playful dialogue and sweet truisms about friendship mimic many of the odd-couple narratives out there, but the comet-human pairing is mighty distinctive. Using a mix of captions and speech bubbles, the comics format never exceeds 10 panels per double-page spread. Haylee’s skin and straight hair are tinted blue while Comet is bright yellow with a bulbous, orange nose. A sequel will release in October 2021. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A clever premise made (nearly) stellar by its art.