Night of the Living Rocks (The Lunch Club #7)

Written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

Scholastic Canada

978-1-0397-0599-9

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

June 2024

 

Another serving of The Lunch Club? Yes, please.

From Night of the Living Rocks, written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

Tia, Leo, and Mr. Peabody are on a mission to save their alien friend Ariel who has been kidnapped by the wicked sorceress Madame Celeste who gets her magical powers from crystals and who is determined to control everyone. She'd already used a spell book and mystic crystals to create "friends" for herself by transforming rocks into living rocks who mine her crystals, but she also has Ariel who has been transformed into Mr. Fish, Guardian of the constellation Pisces, and turned Snookums into the Guardian of Leo, convinced that if she controls the twelve zodiac signs then she will control the future.

From Night of the Living Rocks, written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

Tia, Leo, and Mr. Peabody sneak into her underground lair to free their friends but find more than they expected. Not only do they realize that Madame Celeste is stockpiling all variety of mystic crystals, that can do everything from cause explosions, to give life to rocks, and cause invisibility, they learn of Madame Celeste's latest discovery: an ancient grimoire, or spell book, that speaks of a thirteenth zodiac sign, the snail, being far more powerful than all the rest.

So, not only do they have to save their friends and return them to their old forms, but they must also save the world from a potential takeover from a powerful sorceress who is obsessed with compelling friendships she never had as a child.

From Night of the Living Rocks, written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

There's a lot to Dom Pelletier's latest volume in his middle-grade graphic novel series. (See below for the complete list to date.) Beyond his quirky artwork, Dom Pelletier has given us a story of another fantastic mission of fighting evil while supporting friends. The premise of mystic crystals, transformational rocks, and aliens firmly places Night of the Living Rocks into the supernatural realm, though the other worlds support a fantasy genre. Regardless, by having regular kids, one smart and the other cheeky, with a school custodian, brings the story to the mundane and familiar for readers. But the supernatural gives us the humour in the impossible, the silliness of the circumstances, and moxie to cheer for the defeat of evil and a power-hungry villain. Most of all, readers will laugh themselves silly. From Leo becoming invisible and shedding his clothes except for his heart-covered underpants, and the living rocks a.k.a. Rockies being thrilled when they are turned back to rocks–there are exclamations of "Hurray!","At last!" and "Finally!"–Night of the Living Rocks rocks with goofiness that is absurdly natural. (Yeah, because we all know about fighting sorceresses and helping aliens.) With Dom Pelletier's wacky illustrations that are reminiscent of light comedic action cartoons with their brash characters, weird adventures, ringing sound effects, and skirmishes a plenty, Night of the Living Rocks demonstrates to us that the Lunch Club has lots more missions and adventures ahead of them if they are to keep evil at bay and laughter in our bellies.

 

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The Lunch Club

#1 It Came From the Basement
#2 The Curse of the Scarewolf
#3 The Mutant Mouse from Outer Space
#4 Revenge of the Bigfoot
#5 The Return of the Mummy

#6 The Swamp Thingy

#7 Night of the Living Rocks