By Ben Clanton
The first three Narwhal and Jelly comics in one box — a waffle-obsessed narwhal, a doubtful little jellyfish, and the friendliest first comic books going.
Narwhal is a big, sunny, waffle-loving narwhal who thinks everything is wonderful. Jelly is a small, skeptical jellyfish who is sure it isn't. They meet, become best friends, start a book club with no books in it, and Narwhal decides he's a superhero whose power is niceness. It's all told in comic-strip panels with speech bubbles, mixed with a couple of goofy fun-fact pages about the sea.
For a child crossing into comics, this is about the gentlest doorway there is: the panels show what's happening, the words are few and sit in bubbles, and the jokes are wide open. A child who freezes at a wall of text will read one of these in a sitting and reach for the next, because following pictures from box to box feels like play, not work. The bright open art and short bursts of story make three books feel like an afternoon.