Binky to the Rescue

Photo credit Kids Can Press

“Binky is an official certified space cat. His ongoing mission is to protect his space station from alien invasion.” Binky to the Rescue by Ashley Spires is a part of the Binky the Space Cat graphic novel series. Binky the cat is absolutely adorable! His perspective of his home and the outside world are absolutely hilarious! This is a fun read for kids of all ages!

Spires does a great job of bringing the character of Binky to life and showing us things from his perspective, though it may be a little skewed. When he and his stuffed friend end up outside, or in outer space according to Binky, that's when the adventure really begins. Binky sets out to rescue Ted, because “his best friend is trapped beneath an alien warship (bee hive)! His human must not have seen Ted...and now he has been abandoned to suffer the evil whims of the enemy!” While Binky’s story is told in 3rd person, we still get to see Binky’s perspectives and what he is thinking about his rescue mission.

The composition of visual panels and text boxes offsetting the page makes for a fun balance of words and visuals to enhance the story. The occasional dialogue bubble is thrown in and adds to the fun and it is done either outside the panels or near the character speaking. There are also sound and action words laid over the illustrations to demonstrate the movements or sounds. These words sometimes move in unusual ways that we don’t usually see, but add to the visual engagement for the reader. Some of the action words and smaller panels that are next to each other on a page can intertwine such as the words dash, spring, bounce, that get higher in each panel along with the illustrations of Binky performing these actions.

Spires uses a lot of sensationalism within the story line, by the frequent use of sound and action words, such as smack, plunk, crunch and twirl, lick, or shrug. Almost every illustrated panel includes a sound or action word. While there are a lot of these words throughout the story, they are typically smaller than the text box text, and add movement to the illustrations. They play alongside Binky, while not making the panel seem full or overwhelming with text. While most of the time all of these sound and action words would be an overstatement and distract the reader from the story, but Spires balances it out nicely within the illustrations.

I thought Binky to the Rescue is highly entertaining! Binky’s determination to rescue his friend, while his humans think he is just getting into trouble, relates to a lot of kids including me. When I was little, sometimes I would get caught in weird looking situations or the wrong place and the wrong time, while trying to do something to help out a friend. While this didn’t stop me or Binky it did add extra obstacles to the mission. His humans tell him, “Binky try to behave. He has to try something different. Something BOLD.” He goes above and beyond to help his friend and I think that is a great quality to have and something I feel I have. I think Binky’s rescue mission is hysterical and fun! I give this 4 out of 5 stars and can’t wait to see what other adventures Binky gets into throughout this series.

Binky to the Rescue is another fun Binky adventure. Spires has created a great graphic novel that encompasses a great point of view, fun sound and action words and a balanced composition of visuals and text to capture the reader and keep them engaged all the way through. Binky makes an excellent start for those who are new to the graphic novel genre or young readers! The easy to read style and wonderfully engaging adventure, Binky to the Rescue is a great read! Especially since this edition ended with “The end?”

Spires, A. (2010). Binky to the Rescue. New York: Kids Can Press.