Louis Night salad

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Highly acclaimed metaphrog return with a brand new stand-alone graphic novel: the moving tale of Louis' quest for a cure to save his friend FC. A simple story of friendship, it is both heart-warming and genuinely transporting and told through beautiful hand-painted artwork, packaged in an attractive hardback.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

The newest installment in the award-winning Louis series (by metaphrog team Sandra Marrs and John Chalmers) finds the main character and his bird FC made ill by a spilled bottle of poison. Anxious about his pet and plagued by dizzy spells, Louis plunges into dreaming. A surreal journey ensues, beginning with an escape from a carnivorous caterpillar. He soon encounters new friends in a desert outpost, who advise him to find the fruit of "the raining tree" to heal his beloved bird. As his pursuit leads him into ever-deeper and more dangerous territory, Louis is closely followed by two bothersome neighbors, certain that Louis is leading them to treasure. As in other tales of reluctant travelers, bravery and friendship find their rewards.chicanery and deceit their due punishment. Verdict A dream-quest theme persists throughout this colorful book, which brings to mind many classic, if somewhat less unsettling, adventures: Harold and the Purple Crayon and Where the Wild Things Are. Established fans will delight in this volume; like Louis, new readers will enter the story perplexed but exit with joy.-John Gehner, Urbana Free Lib., IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

School Library Journal Review

Gr 5 Up-Night Salad continues the story of lovable Louis and his mechanical bird, FC. While working outside, the child trips and falls, upending FC's cage and spilling a bottle of chemicals. FC is seriously injured, and the youngster becomes distressed, eventually feeling ill himself. Weeping, he hovers over his friend, wondering what to do. He writes to his aunt for advice, reads a story to FC, and consults with a doctor. Distraught, Louis eventually falls asleep. His dreams take him to a fantastical place in search of the fruit of the raining tree to help his ailing pal. When he awakens, he finds his friends at his bedside and FC recovered. Is the story a dream, a story-within-a-story, or part of his anxiety-induced illness? While the language is simple, it seems to suggest more. The Technicolor images are vibrant and luminous and accentuate the dreamlike quality of the story. The charming figures are endearing, with heartwarming touches and clever language. Like Charlie Brown, Louis seems destined to win devotees worldwide.-Barbara M. Moon, Suffolk Cooperative Library System, Bellport, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Louis, created by a husband-and-wife team collectively known as Metaphrog, is a character who has persevered through a decade of bizarre, metaphysical adventures in British comics but remains obscure to American readers. Night Salad doesn't bother recapping characters or relationships but launches directly into Louis' latest plight. Childlike in personality and baby-faced in appearance, Louis accidentally spills chemicals while toiling away at a vague gardening job that end up killing his mechanical bird Formulaic Companion. The rest of the story concerns Louis' actual journey and dream journey in search of something to cure the little fellow, as he negotiates a disquieting landscape of officious doctors and endless deserts filled with weird creatures. The bright and lively art, filled with classically cartoony figures, serves as an ironic counterpoint to the surreal, uncooperative world teeming with existential implications that poor Louis is never able to grasp. Is this for children? Adults? Well, it's for anyone who wants to plunge down Alice's rabbit hole, really, which is an admittedly small but very committed group.--Karp, Jesse Copyright 2010 Booklist