Gruel Snarl is a little alien who has many things to play with - but they are all driving his mother ZONKERS, so she tells him to go draw. He draws a bunch of Wild Zugthings - all regular Earth animals with very funny names. But when he draws the WILDEST Zugthing (a human boy), it comes to life and wreaks havoc in the house! But who is drawing who? This is hilarious and the claymation Gruel Snarl is super cool looking and took a lot of effort, and I like how the font fits the theme as well.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

This was a really fun story.

The art was perfect - the mix between the photos and drawings. And the story was funny. I did <i><b>not</b></i> see it going there.

I may have to pick this up for some kids at the right age. Maybe 4-ish?

Recommended.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Schiffer Publishing Ltd. for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

Gruel Snarl Draws a Wild Zugthing by Jantzer Studios is currently scheduled for release on September 28 2017. Modeling-clay character Gruel Snarl is driving his mom zonkers! Just an ordinary kid with an extraordinary imagination, Gruel spends his days doing all kinds of things but always seems to find his way into mischief. Desperate to find something to keep Gruel out of trouble, his mom offers him paper and crayons. Find out what happens when his imagination takes an unexpected turn in this story as the main characters merge and jump right off the page.

Gruel Snarl Draws a Wild Zugthing is a fun story about an alien kid driving their mother up the wall. After being handed the tools to draw things only get worse as the creatures jump off the page. I liked that things are turned around and Gruel and the boy he draws switch roles. It leaves the book with an interesting twist leaving readers wondering who is drawing who. The artwork is interesting, with a combination of clay creatures and drawn cut outs leading the majority of the action. At first the artwork left me a little apathetic, but by the end I was a little more impressed. It was an interesting and reasonably unique story, however it still left me content but not overly impressed. I think there is definitely a market for the book, and highly imaginative kids (and their families) are likely to appreciate it the most.

Wasn't a huge fan of this book, the story was ok but I didn't really like the images and I thought that it did let the book down, sadly just two stars for this one.

Who is drawing who in this adventure? Gruel is a green space alien, whose mom hands him some crayons to stay busy. But everything he draws comes to life and wrecks havoc. But there is a space time ripple, and in another dimension there is a boy, and he two has life like drawings. A fun story, and unusual and cool illustrations/graphics that will have kids wanting more. Plus it a great way to practice phonics with words that are rippled as well.

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This funny book is sure to make your children laugh. Gruel Snarl, our intragalactic hero is always getting into trouble. His mother means to give him a peaceful activity, but his drawings jump right off the page and come to life causing havoc. Meanwhile, on the other side of the universe, a young boy is imagining and drawing Gruel as Gruel is drawing him. We can only imagine what is happening there.

Illustrations are uniquely done in mixed media including clay sculpture and drawings among other things.

When I first read this I thought it was incredibly colorful, interesting and unique especially the twist at the end. That twist alone made this one of the coolest, most mind bending books I’ve looked into for my kids in a while. At first I thought it was the same old kind of alien thing until that ending!

As an adult I had no trouble with the ‘alien’ language and caught on really quick that even though Gruel was drawing what appeared to be pictures of ‘normal’ beings such as a gorilla, giraffe and a little boy to him they were ‘alien’ beings so that is why he was giving them off, alien sounding names. At first I had no issues with the story because I was approaching this from an adult perspective.

Then I read it to one of my daughters since I always get their opinions when I do reviews on kid books.

She had trouble understanding and got a little frustrated with me as to why I was giving the gorilla, giraffe, snake, mouse, etc these odd names instead of calling them what they are and she couldn’t repeat the alien names very well. I had to stop and go through this whole explanation with her about how an alien might perceive our world and what is normal to us would be freaky alien creatures to him. Eventually she got it but then when we got to the ending which as an adult I thought was pretty intriguing to do that twist she again didn’t get it.

She liked the alien, she liked when he got into trouble, she liked him drawing because she loves to do draw but when it came to the other stuff she didn’t like it. She can be very literal and logical so it’s either all alien or all human and the cross melting of the two just seemed to throw her off.