OPERATION: COVER-UP

Brainiac and class clown newbies struggle to define themselves.

Sy, a bespectacled, wisecracking blue kitty, is apprehensive about starting a new school midway through the year. So is Nick, a scholarly pink bunny with a huge vocabulary. Both make disastrous errors in their separate fifth grade classroom debuts, both are skeptical when their parents offer reassurance, and both fear not being recognized for their gifts. When Sy spouts off a scientific fact in class, he’s branded an intellectual; after Nick relates a funny anecdote, his classmates assume he’s a joker. Sy and Nick panic and attempt to live up to the labels they’ve been saddled with, in the hopes of making new friends. Godwin deftly explores the weight of expectations and the power of teamwork as Sy and Nick finally meet and decide to secretly help each other out. But Operation: Cover-Up proves difficult—especially when the annual talent show rolls around. Featuring a lively, nonstop narrative arc and precise pastel cartoon art, this humorous graphic novel conveys complex truths about loyalty, identity, and honesty. Godwin employs a split screen–style format early on as Sy and Nick embark on parallel storylines that eventually converge—an inspired way to introduce the protagonists and to help readers realize that everyone, no matter how outwardly confident, feels self-doubt and uncertainty.

Hilarious, perceptive, and thoughtful—just like its protagonists.