Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Box Tales: Grow, Strawberries, Grow. I have really enjoyed James Burks's Agent 9 and Bird & Squirrel graphic novels with my sons and I was excited for this new series. This book is wonderfully illustrated and starts with a super relatable problem...eating all your strawberries the day you get them. After a humorous scene involving lima beans, they decide to grow their own strawberries. They work so hard, and have some hilarious adventures, along with a few setbacks. They eventually get everything worked out and successfully grow strawberries. We will definitely add this to our collection!

a short, funny and sweet guide to growing your own strawberries. very informative, while keeping it light, cheerful and appealing to young readers. the only thing would be nice is that when you pick strawberries, usually the stems don't poke quite so straight up. i liked that they had to protect the strawberries from critters, but i would have been fun if that went somewhere. like they discover what the best way to keep critters out is. but a great book for beginning readers.

This was a super cute graphic novel. The illustrations were adorable and the story was very easy to follow. I like how much information it gave about how to grow strawberries and how much patience the kids needed to wait for the reward of growing their own fruit.
Thanks to First Second and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book. All opinions in this review are my own.

Book 155 of 350 ~ 2025

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I enjoyed this a lot and now I have a hankering for Strawberries and fresh strawberry lemonade lol

I received a complimentary copy of the ebook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Bea and their friend Box? Could this beginning graphic novel REALLY be a hit? What a great addition to the graphic novel genre and hopefully the start of a series. Filled with humor, adventure, and factual information, this title has it all. Great use of panels and characterization to bring to life a Box and its best friend’s enthusiastic journey towards a world of strawberries! Kids will love this for its humor (“I think we broke your mom”) and its relatability (how long does it take for strawberries to grow!?). The best part of the story is its use of the scientific method and the representation of the research process.

At first glace, Box Tales looks like it belogs on the shelf with the myriad indistinguishable ____ & ____ early graphic novel series. Popular, sure, but few are remarkable. While Box Tales will certainly appeal to the Pea, Bea, and Jay and Pizza and Taco fans, there is more to this story. Box Tales tells a fun, silly friendship story about two kids (one human, one box), who want to eat A LOT of strawberries. How can they get more strawberries? By growing them, of course! The characters learn about gardening from a neighbor and the book sneaks in a lot of plant facts without feeling dull.

Love and can't wait for the next one. This will definitely have a place in my library.

Lighthearted and informative! Young readers learn about gardening and the life cycle of strawberry plants in a funny, engaging way.

This was a cute graphic novel, but really lost my interest about halfway through. Might be good for a young aspiring gardener, though! The illustrations are pretty fun, and would would have thought a box could give off main character energy? :)

Thank you for the ARC. I didn’t realize this was such a long book. It was too long for my young kiddo but the pictures were great and I liked the comic book type of style.

Beatrix and Box want to eat a million strawberries! But their only way to do it is to grow their own strawberry garden!

The two friends plant. They water. They wait... and they wait... and they wait some more. They had no idea it takes this long for plants to grow. Who has the patience to wait this long? And who or what is nibbling on the leaves? Beatrix and Box's frustrations are growing faster than their garden. Will Beatrix and Box run out of patience and quit before their garden bears fruit, or will they feast on the goodies they grow?

I loved the whimsy of normalizing an anthropomorphized box as a character. There were some truly laugh out loud moments of visual humor. The art brings boisterous energy that feels like a Pixar movie.

That said, the instructional asides about gardening didn't work for me and disrupted the flow of the story.

I am so pleasantly surprised by this graphic novel! I have a black thumb. I am death to any living plant. It's real. But I think even I might be able to grow some strawberries after reading this book. And I didn't even feel like I was learning.

When a young boy and his box eat all the strawberries in the house, they made a deal with Mom. If they can eat 10 lima beans each, she will buy more strawberries. Instead, these two take to planting their own strawberries so they’ll never have to eat lima beans again. This was a fun early graphic novel for grades 2 to 4. The illustrations are fun and charming and puts a smile on your face.