What a fun graphic novel. This is for your beginning chapter books when they’ve worked past level four readers and are looking for a little bit more difficulty. While this is a fiction book its set up to answer those strange questions that kids ask like “can you hear a penguin fart in space”. There’s also a section on wording like knight with a “k” and night with an “n” and then we end up with some other just really fun questions. Jim Benton’s humor comes through loud and clear with fantastic illustrations to match. Readers of any age are going to find this book to be a lot of fun.

As we gather from the full title of this book, it is not a text that takes itself too seriously. Structured as a graphic novel, robots Jop and Blip tackle three absurd questions. Now, Benton could make jokes of the whole thing. Instead, he looks at the actual science involved in each question. Take the title question - a penguin farting on Mars. First Jop and Blip determine what it would take to even get a penguin to the planet. Then, they look at the details of a penguin's digestive system. And finally, they break down the science of sound on Mars. Every aspect is broken down. The overall framework is centered on endless curiosity and open exploration. No question is too silly to explore and science can provide all kinds of answers. It encourages the reader to continue to ask questions without shame and guides them through the process of finding answers.

Jim Benton has done it again with Jop and Bip Wanna Know! Packed with Benton’s signature wackiness and charm, curious minds will find out if you can hear a penguin fart on Mars and they‘ll wanna know when book #2 will come.

So cute. The book is fun and creative. Having the robots talk to one another about questions they have and then finding out the answers together is really fun. It had such a unique way of having the robots converse with one another. And while the questions they had were silly and strange, the banter between the robots educated the audience on other more simple concepts.
My only complaint was that I would have liked more information about the characters. It seemed like is was written for people who already know who these characters are - which is odd since it is the 1st book with these characters.

I shared excerpts with my 5th grade students, and it was a unanimous vote - they enjoyed this book! As a trivia nerd, I enjoyed it as well; it's full of random facts and answers to questions you didn't know you had. The graphics are very of-the-moment with this age group - similar to "Dogman" or "Bad Kitty" - and references to farting are always a hit with upper-elementary boys. I am sure this will be a good addition to my classroom library as another choice for self-selected reading, and I will recommend it to my 8 year old grandson, as well. As it is numbered #1, I assume this is a series. I feel like Jop and Blip will have an enthusiastic audience. I did receive an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a review, and the opinions here are my own.

Jop and Blip Wanna Know is a children's book that I would say is for grades 3-6. It is more like a graphic novel following the two robots asking and answering questions with science knowledge.