  | Full Text Reviews: Booklist - 02/15/2018 Courageous tomboy, clever princess, aspiring dessert chef, African knight, and gruff wheelchair-using ex-warrior—the giant- and dragon-fighting scallywags return to add monsters to their repertoire. This time out, Claudette talks her way (along with her dubious friends) into the Warrior Games, an Olympics-like contest which, much to tough, brave Claudette’s disappointment, turns out to be a contest of butter churning, truffle hunting, and field plowing. That’s not even to speak of the opposing team, which turns out to be heinous monsters in disguise, with their eyes on a lot more than just first prize. This all plays out with energy and charm in Rosado’s swift, modern cartooning, which distinctively incorporates shapes and details that recall a rougher, spunkier era of children’s animation and includes some particularly nifty double splash pages. Previous installments put a higher premium on subverting social stereotypes, but the story never loses sight of the fact that friendship trumps winning, intelligence and diplomacy have their place in victory, and that it’s not just shape but intention that makes a monster. - Copyright 2018 Booklist. Loading...
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