Pencil & Eraser: We Have a Dull-Emma!: An Early Reader Graphic Novel

Follow the adventures of Pencil and its sidekick Eraser as they stumble, tumble, and fumble along the school rooms trying to find a sharpener to transform Pencil’s dull lead writing tip into a sharp point. Using lots of puns and dad jokes to describe this ‘dull-emma’, the talented author and illustrator Jenny Alvarado cleverly captures the thinking processes of the young reader as she escorts them along this saga that challenges their skill to solve this dilemma.

The mobile facial features effectively twist and turn, bounce and jounce on the simple graphic figures to express their thoughts, and the bold background colors emphasize the yellow character of a typical pencil while the cautious eraser is artfully represented. This definitely is a story to tickle the kids and they will love to groan at all the shenanigans that they can identify with.

There is only one thought that concerns this viewer, kids now use markers, crayons, and digital devices; so I wonder how familiar they still find pencils and erasers.