Squeak Chatter Bark: An Eco-Mystery

In this charming middle-grade graphic novel, 11-year-old Hazel McCrimlisk’s scientist parents are kidnapped inside the ecosphere they live and work in. Can Hazel and her friends find them in time?

Hazel and her parents live an idyllic life in a treehouse in the PAW (Perfect Animal Worlds) Biosphere among a series of ecologically controlled environments populated by genetically created and enhanced animals and flora. As scientists working for PAW, together with founder Dr. Henry Nimick, the McCrimlisk’s mission is to create a world that will usher in an era of “good evolution”, populated with animals and plants that can transform pollution and other environmental hazards to make the region clean and habitable. But one foggy night, Hazel’s parents are suddenly kidnapped. With the help of her animal friends Chimi (a multilingual toucan), Nina (a pet-sized elephant who exhibits super-strength), and her human friend (comics lover and mythology expert) Alex, Hazel tracks clues throughout the various biodomes and climates uncovering what happened to her parents and leading her to... a monster?!?

Author Ali Fitzgerald charmingly wrote, drew, lettered, and colored this book featuring an imaginative setting rich with detail and a clear, expressive brush-pen style — with a good sense of personality and motion. Her colorful, anthropomorphic characters are bright and funny sleuths alongside Hazel as they follow the clues together. Filled with puns and hijinks, readers will delight in this mystery with an ecological message.