Seashell Key is going to be a new series and volume one will be out by the end of April 2024. Lourdes Heuer and illustrator Lynnor Bontigao made three cute stories about six friends, a big shaggy doggy, a turtle and the fun (and slightly crazy) adventures they get into, the coconut water they drink and the mangos that have been eaten (by the turtle).
As my copy was a physical reader’s copy, the artwork was incomplete, but notes do say that it will be full color and the samples shown make things seem like they will be very bubbly, colorful and medium details. I am looking forward to seeing the kites that one character has created, especially the “sea cows” (or more accurately, manatees).
The first story is about how a young boy loves to make kites and all things flying. He cannot fly a plane like his father, but he can make things fly. He is also a boy who likes to see things as they could be and (unlike many adults) not how they are. This theme flows throughout the second story as well. Two sisters (one practical and the other more fanciful) explore the beach. One draws things as they are, while the other whispers poems to hermit crabs. We enter story three (or Act III as they call the sections, which are then broken down into three chapters each) where three siblings (two boys and a girl, whom I am assuming are triplets, like the sisters are twins) and the trip they take some tourists on throughout their home, the cozy (cramped) and historical (old) lighthouse.
There are some puns and jokes that will have kids and kids at heart laughing, a few mishaps that parents will understand and probably relate to and a lot of munchies and crunchies (bananas, mangos, sandwiches (pineapple cream cheese and strawberry jam anyone?) sandwiches) and much more.