Henry Heckelbeck gets a dragon by Wanda Coven

I always rather liked Heidi Heckelbeck, but although this series had a brief surge of popularity a few years ago, they've since been slowly but surely losing interest and I've stopped purchasing new titles and am contemplating starting to weed the the series in the next few years. So I was skeptical of a new series featuring Heidi's younger brother Henry, a la Judy Moody and Stink.

Unlike his magical older sister Heidi, Henry is a perfectly normal boy. He's energetic, noisy, and sometimes annoys his older sister with his impulsive actions. He's excited about his first day back at school, meeting his friend Ben, playing soccer, and maybe solving some mysteries! The first mystery he has to solve is the empty desk and the odd new student. Is she shy or is she unfriendly? When his teacher gives them an assignment to bring three things that are "all about me" to show the class, Henry looks forward to getting to know the mysterious Max better. But when he's finding his remote-controlled dragon, he knocks down a strange book with spells! He tries out a spell and brings his dragon to life - now he's got a problem; catch his dragon, keep it from setting anything on fire, and don't let Max see what's happening. That last might be harder than he thinks, because she likes to play spy and has got her eyes on Henry.

This is a simpler text than Heidi Heckelbeck; the text is larger and there is more white space, and the simple black and white pictures take up more space on the pages. The Heckelbecks are white; Henry's best friend Dudley is black. I think part of the reason these books haven't been popular is the rather blah illustrations. They're simple black and white sketches, the characters' eyes are just little scribbly dots, and there isn't much detail or interest to them. Henry's "adventure" isn't very exciting and overall I don't see kids being excited about it when they are losing interest in the original series.

Verdict: If Heidi Heckelbeck is still popular at your library, you may find interest in this series, or if you need more beginning chapter series featuring (white) boys, but this is at the very end of additional purchases for my collection.

ISBN: 9781534461048; Published December 2019 by Little Simon; Borrowed from another library in my consortium