The Puzzle of Doom (The Lunch Club, Book 8)

Written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

Scholastic Canada

978-1-0397-1102-0

136 pp.

Ages 7–10

July 2025 

 

You know there will be laughs to be had if the secret club called the Lunch Club is meeting again. This time Leo and Tia, along with their club advisor Mr. Peabody, are pulled into a ghostly puzzle that comes from England.

From The Puzzle of Doom, written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

In the prologue to Dom Pelletier's latest volume in his The Lunch Club series, readers are witness to Lord Puzzlegood who, while working outdoors on a puzzle at his club in 1890 London, is killed by lightning. His fellow puzzlers, threatened by his ghostly demands to find the final puzzle piece, lock him away with the puzzle while his earthly possessions are exiled to Canada.

 

In the present day, Leo and Tia, along with Mr. Peabody, are enjoying a local street fair where Madame Celeste (from an earlier adventure) gifts them with a protection amulet and crystal ball respectively. Tia also ends up with a piggy bank left behind by another vendor, Fred, a neighbour of Madame Celeste's.

From The Puzzle of Doom, written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

At school, they meet new student Dale Picklesworth III who is on exchange from the Puzzle Collector's Club of England, another secret club. Leo is not especially friendly to Dale who is bright and athletic, talented and partnering with Tia. 

Everything becomes a little wackier when Leo and Mr. Peabody open a box hidden in the gym's storage area and Tia gets a message about the piggy bank being haunted. With that, Lord Puzzlegood rears his ghostly head in an effort to complete his final puzzle.

From The Puzzle of Doom, written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

Dom Pelletier always brings the wacky and the fun with The Lunch Club, and, with The Puzzle of Doom, he introduces a new character and an ongoing story. (The puzzle is going to lead into a new adventure in Book 9 of The Lunch Club.) He gives us the supernatural, school- and friend-based tensions that all children will recognize–except for the ghosts, of course–and laughter through the puns, the clever repartee, and zany panic. I love everything about The Lunch Club, from the characters as they act and as they are drawn (by Dom Pelletier) to the humour of their situations and of their interactions, and to the silliness of the

extraordinary plots. In The Puzzle of Doom, Dom Pelletier makes readers laugh but still think about how we get along with others, about how to work together to find solutions to problems, albeit supernatural ones here, and about what the next adventure might be for the "Philately" Club. And by giving us eye-catching art and nutty cartoon characters, Dom Pelletier continues to hook young readers and keep them returning to the Lunch Club.

 

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The Lunch Club series

#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

#8 The Puzzle of Doom

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

The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5)

Written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

English text by Dina Ginzburg

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-9584-3

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

July 2022 

 

In Dom Pelletier's latest volume of his hysterical middle grade graphic novel series, the members of the secret Lunch Club a.k.a. the Philately Club must do some ingenious problem solving with time travel in order to help their teacher, Mr. Peabody, and the original founder of their club, Eglantine, from the nefarious actions of a trio of evil-doers.

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

Determined to save himself from being eaten by Fluffy the sea monster in 1803, the villainous McSticky transports himself back in time, along with the huge moustachioed space monster Zaralgax and his mutant rat companion. Sadly Mr. Peabody is accidentally transported too. But time travel is not necessarily straightforward and the group ends up in various times before the bad guys end up where they want to be. 

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

Meanwhile Tia and Leo end up bringing back to the school a mummy they release from a sarcophagus while on a field trip to the museum and discover, through some very funny circumstances, that it is actually someone they know who hoped to be discovered in the future. With a lot more laughs and some more time travel from the future and into the past, Tia and Leo are able to save Eglantine before McSticky changes the course of history and gets Fluffy to eat her instead.

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

There will be belly laughs, quiet snickers and loud guffaws from kids as they again visit with Leo and Tia and Mr. Peabody in Dom Pelletier's The Lunch Club. Their teachers and parents will understand the irreverence of the stories but kids will just laugh. From Leo who is always getting into mischief like trying to wake up a mummy–"Hey, Mummy, wakey-wakey!"– or sticking fridge magnets to his braces, and Mr. Peabody who can sleep anytime and for long periods, courtesy of a radioactive mosquito, to the odd villains who annoy them, Dom Pelletier has created the weird and wonderful in The Lunch Club. Add a heavy dose of the fantastic, with time-travel, aliens, and wacky contraptions, and The Lunch Club is the place for middle grade readers to visit for a literary snack.

 

• • • • •

The Lunch Club (originally available in French as Les timbres):

#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

 

Do check out the website dedicated to The Lunch Club, including activities, videos and learning to draw with Dom Pelletier, at Scholastic Canada here.

• • • • •

The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement

Written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

English text by Dina Ginzburg

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-8271-3

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

October 2020 

 

Tia's nervousness at attending a new school, Pleasant Valley Elementary, is not assuaged when she meets a red-haired boy in braces who makes her the butt of his jokes in multiple classes. But when the opportunity comes to work together, it's nice to have a cheeky friend to help you save the world from an alien.

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

Unbeknownst to Tia and Leo, the night before she arrives at the school, a turnip-shaped space craft lands near the school and a green-tentacled creature begins controlling the custodian, Mr. Bob. His strange behaviour is first noted by the kids at lunch the next day when they both end up in a room labelled "Philately Club" supervised by a nerdy man who sleeps most of the time. Tia, looking for some peace, and Leo, writing lines for poor behaviour, observe Mr. Bob collecting food scraps and saving them in his mop bucket while muttering gobbledygook.

 

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

 

Following the custodian, the two discover a moustached and tentacled green creature consuming all the food scraps. When they seek the help of the Philately Club's supervisor, they learn that Mr. Peabody is the official guardian of the club that was created hundreds of years ago to fight the forces of darkness. Oh, and collect stamps.

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

Sleuthing around the school, Tia and Leo discover the creature, now intelligible after devouring an English dictionary, intends to conquer the school, and take over the world as Emperor Zaralgax the First. When they witness it plopping out a number of colourful eggs, the two know they need to act fast. Armed with a weird assortment of gadgets, from a slingshot and flashlight, magnifier and shield, Tia and Leo, with a little help from Mr. Peabody, take on the green menace and thwart its evil plan.

From The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement by Dom Pelletier

Kids will laugh themselves silly over The Lunch Club: It Came from the Basement. They'll know a sweet Tia with her unicorn shirt and funny guy Leo who'll do anything for a laugh. (Eating glue sticks is what got him assigned to writing lines.) And they'll know about fitting in and being brave and scared and why peanut butter isn't allowed in schools. Between the laughs in Dom Pelletier's words ("We're in a bad dream!" "Well, we are in school..."), including a commercial break for organic turnips, and the hilarious cartoons, this middle-grade graphic novel will have them snorting and whooping with every page. 

I'm delighted that Dom Pelletier's French-language graphic novels Les Timbrés will now be available to English readers. As of this month, there will be three French-language titles in the series (see below) and but I think young English readers thirsty for a good laugh and irreverent humour, which is what they'll get with this series, will eagerly await the next titles. (The Curse of the Scarewolf is hinted to be coming soon.)