This is another one of my impulse BookXcess buys, but unlike some of the others (which were purchased because it hit the price+cover+blurb sweet spot), I wanted to buy Squirrel Meets World because: a) it was written by Shannon Hale, and b) I recalled Krysta from Pages Unbound talking about why you should read Squirrel Girl.
As it turns out, this is a novel and the recommendation was for the graphic novels, but I still had a blast reading this.
Squirrel Meets World is the origin story of Squirrel Girl, aka Doreen. Doreen was born with a tail and all the powers of a squirrel (including the ability to understand squirrel speak). She’s enthusiastic and bubbly, and when she moves to a new town, she finds herself caught up in superhero-esque activities. But superheroes don’t work in a vacuum, so Doreen is aided by her new friend Ana Sofia (who wears hearing aids) and Tippy Toe (the squirrel), both of whom are POV characters.
The story is told through regular narration and some very funny text messages (especially with The Avengers), as well as some footnotes where Doreen breaks the fourth wall to give you her opinion on things.
Another thing I enjoyed, and can’t not mention, were the positive relationships Doreen had with her parents! Her mum appears a bit more often, but Doreen has a warm and loving relationship with both her parents. This is especially evident through the way they text and talk and since a lot of YA parents tend to be absent, this was a refreshing change.
Cute narrative style and awesome characters aside, Squirrel Meets World has a plot that helped to carry all the characters. As an origin story, Doreen has to deal with the question of who she is and what type of hero she wants to be. It was really great watching her grow and make various types of friends. I did manage to figure out who the villain was fairly early on, but I’m also guessing that I’m a bit older than the target audience for the book.
Overall, Squirrel Meets World is a fantastic book that I think will win the hearts of readers of all ages. The story is fun, the characters are great, and everything is tied together very well. If you’re looking for a dose of positivity, this is a book you should be reading.
I’ve wanted to read some of these books since Krysta wrote about them, too! I also watched a couple Marvel Rising episodes on Disney+ and Doreen is in them and really fun.
We don’t have Disney+ yet, so I’m excited for that! This was great, it made me want to read the comics!
This sounds like so much fun! My daughter and I really enjoyed Shannon and Dean Hale’s Princess In Black series, and my daughter has gone on to read a couple of Shannon’s middle grade graphic novels.
I really like Shanon Hale! If Mouse is into superheroes, I think she will enjoy this very much!
This looks like so much fun and like it’s so so cute!!
It’s amazing! Such a fun read, I really enjoyed this one!
I read this before I’d ever read the comics and I was kind of confused, especially about the random footnotes!
For me, it was the part where she was texting the avengers – I was like “how did Shannon Hale get license to use these characters?” but it was still very fun.
It seems to me that Hale has, for the past few years, been writing a large number of titles by request for different companies/series. I rather miss when she was writing her own works like Goose Girl. I don’t really need her to write me another Wonder Woman book. But maybe other people are excited to see her writing their favorite superheroes.
YAY!!!! I love, love, love Squirrel Girl! I’d go so far as to say she’s the most important comic character Marvel’s running right now (even if she rarely gets the credit she deserves). I adored this novel, too. And the sequel – ‘2 Fuzzy, 2 Furrious’ – is also worth checking out. It is clear that Shannon Hale really gets the character, too, as the novel fits seamlessly within the world of Doreen’s comic adventures. Seeing this review just made my day :).
I definitely have to check out comics now! And the sequel! If it’s like this one, I’m sure I’ll enjoy it!
I find that Shannon Hale does really great novel tie-ins – her books for the Ever After High series were great too!
I read this book a few years ago and it is a great book. I got to say I like the comics as well.
Oooh, I definitely have to read the comics!