Cabin Head and Tree Head (Cabin Head and Tree Head #1)

Oblong-shaped best friends Cabin Head and Tree Head—whose respective noggins sport a picturesque abode and a tree hung with a tire swing—star in this goofy early reader graphic novel series starter by Campbell (Skulls!). In the first of six stories, Tree Head announces to Cabin Head, “I feel a case of the HELLOS coming on.” A full-page illustration—rendered in earth-toned watercolors on sepia paper—depicts Tree Head’s mad dash through the neighborhood greeting myriad residents (“Hello, Fountain Head!”). Though Tree Head inadvertently leaves their BFF in the dust, once the titular tag team reunites, they encounter Construction Heads (“I don’t think they heard us. It is too loud over there”) and TV Heads (“too engrossed in their programs”), until a final address (“Hello, tacos”) sees the pair sharing a meal on a grassy knoll. The conflict is low, and the spirits are high between the easygoing duo, whose subsequent adventures feature treasure hunting, a bad hair day, and an epic game of hide-and-seek. It’s a congenial snapshot of best buds who are eager to bask in life’s everyday joys—and, as the introductory tale suggests, happy to invite a new friend along. Ages 6–9. Agent: Steve Malk, Writers House. (Sept.)