Holm, Jennifer L. & Matthew Holm. Our Hero (Babymouse #2). Random House, 2005. ISBN 978-0375832307 96 pp. $6.99

Brother & sister Jennifer & Matthew Holm team up to present this tale of a sassy little mouse with a bully problem. Babymouse drags her feet getting out of bed in the morning because she dreads gym, algebra and Felicia Furrypaws, a mean kitty who looks down on her. Faced with the threat that if she forgets her sneakers one more time, her poor marks in gym will go on her permanent record, she enlists the help of her best buddy, a weasel named Wilson, to give her a refresher course in dodgeball. She dreams of being a superhero, but can’t sleep the night before the Big Day.

The humor comes from the hyperbole: a walk to school that takes on the ordeal of traversing the Oregon Trail, and a jailbreak escape fantasy in the middle of math class. Dream sequences are recognizable by the pink shaded panels that begin with one item in pink as a transition.

Babymouse’s fears are universal as her charm. For libraries seeking graphic novels for children, this one contains nothing more controversial than a scary locker that eats homework and a little dodgeball violence.