When April 2026 comes, you readers of this review will have a plethora of choices. And I hope one of those is Penny and the Yeti by Jimmy Gaspero and Amber Akin. Read via an online reader copy, I plan on finding a finished copy as there are some things I think might make more sense if I can physically hold a book in hand and explore this deceptively simple seeming story.
This book is not perfect. Which, yes, is an odd thing to start a review with. This is because there are a few bumps with the plot for me. However, the positives overrule anything I wasn’t thrilled over such as the flow is a bit jumpy. Sometimes I thought I had skipped a page or a piece of information was left out. Yet I enjoyed the story having modern overtones, is cute, funny and sweet illustrations. The idea of a girl trying to keep her parents together is not new, but it has a new feeling. 
Penny is young, she and her older sister (who loves cryptids) listen to their parents fight. A lot. And Penny will do anything to stop them. In a (not so) surprise twist a yeti from her sister’s drawing comes to life. Here is another bump, I never saw Yeti as helping Penny, they’re another kid doing things and neither helping or hurting. Once they learn of Yeti’s existence her parents (and pretty much everyone who meets Yeti in town) are terribly okay with the situation. But since it is meant for ages 7 and up, I’m not going to worry too much about that. The pluses are the colors are bold, images are simple without losing needed information. The action feels realistic, the thoughts of the kids are logical to the situation, but I would have liked to have seen a less polished ending, but it works.
