Cul de Sac chronicles the absurdly wonderful adventures of the Otterloop family. Alice, Petey, Mom, and Dad live in the cookie-cutter suburbs not far from the interstate. Here, and at school, their day-to-day life unfolds with simple joys, tiny infractions, and wonderful moments of gentle bliss. In this specially curated collection for kids, the quirky world of Cul de Sac comes to life for a new audience. Praise for  Cul de Sac: "One of the five best features in any newspaper, period."  —The Comics Reporter - "(Thompson) produces one of the few strips around where nearly every individual panel is standalone delight."  —The Onion A.V. Club - "I can't say enough in his favor, so much is my admiration for his work." —Pat Oliphant - "Much-needed jolt of energy to the daily newspaper. We have a real talent here." —Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes )   Gr 5-8–Thompson follows in the tradition of Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts and Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes in this comic strip about a precocious child with a sharp wit and a strong imagination. Alice is four years old and lives in a suburban community named Cul de Sac. She attends the Blisshaven Academy preschool, where she impatiently learns the shape of the day and her teacher's whitewashed Mother Goose rhymes, one in which Humpty Dumpty “uses caution and care” to “sit on a chair.” Alice and her fellow preschoolers are a little darker, preferring to prepare for the zombie apocalypse, train bees to follow their bidding, and never get caught looking “cute.” The scrawled text, wavey lines, and caricatured cartoon style once again recall Calvin and Hobbes. This witty look at childhood might actually appeal most to parents, but tweens and even teens should appreciate the surreal humor and sarcastic dialogue.–Lisa Goldstein, Brooklyn Public Library, NYα(c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. This book collects comic strips from Thompson’s Cul de Sac, a syndicated comic strip about preschooler Alice Otterloop and her family, including her worrywart older brother, Petey, and her preschool class and teachers. Alice may be only four years old, but as Thompson writes and draws her, she observes her world with a keen and offbeat eye. When Petey teaches Alice to write her name in a letter code (LS), and she asks, “Will just anyone be able to read this? Am I at risk of identity theft?” Petey answers, “There’s always that danger.” Other strips cover trick-or-treating on Halloween, misusing the talking stick in preschool class, discussing Christmas and the family’s underwhelming outdoor decorations, playing with scary jack-in-the-box toys, and much more. Thompson’s rather scratchy black-and-white art (the Sunday strips are in color) may not appeal to all children, but those middle-grade students who appreciate subtle humor laced with healthy sarcasm will enjoy it. Think of it as Peanuts for the twenty-first century. Grades 3-5. --Kat Kan  Richard Thompson is the creator of Cul de Sac and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year. His illustrations have appeared in numerous publications, including U.S. News & World Report, National Geographic, and The New Yorker . He announced in 2009 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and has since rallied other cartoonists and illustrators to contribute to the Team Cul de Sac project to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation. In September 2012, Thompson retired from creating Cul de Sac. Online: www.gocomics.com/culdesac/ richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com