Review of "Brunt and Eggbert Happen Upon a Wreck!" by Jeff Dorrill, Illustrated by Angeles Peinador

Score: 94+/100 (9.4+ out of 10)

Brunt and Eggbert Happen Upon a Wreck! is a funny, tender, and surprisingly layered children’s picture book about family, patience, jealousy, manners, belonging, and learning to make room for someone new.

The direct sequel to Brunt and Eggbert (book one in the series), it is created by Jeff Dorrill and illustrated by Angeles Peinador.

This is going to sound like a funny and/or strange comparison, but this reminded us a lot of Winnie the Poo with monsters. Eggbert is a lot like Christopher Robin, and Brunt is a lot like Winnie the Pooh. The two more or less fill the same archetype. This book (and the series as a whole) have a lot of the same childlike wonder, charm, and lighthearted appeal.

Brunt, a gentle monster, and Eggbert, a human boy, have built a happy father-son life together in their cozy shared cave. They garden, fish, read, joke, renovate, and look after each other like any loving family. Their peaceful routine changes when Astrid, a compassionate zoo veterinarian, discovers a wild, feral little monster causing absolute chaos in the woods. The creature trashes Astrid’s things, scares animals, and later demolishes Brunt and Eggbert’s cave, earning the name Wreck.

This came as a pleasant surprise to us because we were expecting Brunt and Eggbert to discover a shipwreck with some treasure or something (based on the title). Instead, they discover a little monster who proves to be a handful!

Eggbert struggles with Wreck almost immediately. She claws rugs, ruins homework, splashes in the stream, wrecks the garden, disrupts meals, and basically turns their home into a miniature disaster zone. Brunt, however, sees something Eggbert cannot at first: Wreck is not bad. She is frightened, untaught, and alone.

It speaks to the importance of nature vs nurture. Brunt is also a monster, but he's also kind, likely because he was shown and taught kindness. The book presents the challenging question: couldn't a monster like Wreck be taught the same?

Astrid helps Eggbert understand that Wreck comes from a different world and simply does not know how to behave, so they begin teaching her basic manners. Slowly, Wreck learns to say things like “please,” “thank you,” and “sorry.”

The emotional turning point comes when Eggbert, overwhelmed and jealous of how much attention Wreck is getting, tries to return her to the monster village. But when he gets trapped near the river and is threatened by dangerous monsters, Wreck rescues him. Eggbert then realizes that Wreck’s so-called family may not be safe or loving at all. When he returns home, he admits that he was thinking more about his own comfort than Wreck’s well-being.

This confrontation with the monsters is ever so slightly on the darker side, since the monsters threaten to eat both Eggbert and Wreck. There's also some peril when the monsters fall into the river after Wreck bites through the log bridge. However, they survive (no one dies in these books that we know of) and recover by clinging to the riverbank. So, children and adults can be comforted that the mean monsters still faced consequences without worrying if they're permanently hurt or in mortal danger.

By the end, Eggbert chooses compassion. He recognizes that Wreck needs a safe home just like he once did. Brunt and Eggbert rearrange their cave to make room for her, and the story closes with the new family sharing cobbler, making plans, and entering the Crispy Crunchy Peach Cobbler Bake-Off together.

Once again, the illustrations by Angeles Peinador are fantastic! They really make this an above-average children's book. The one tiny little thing that bothered us (and maybe it's more of a character thing) are the boils on Brunt's skin. One of us was eating and had to stop eating when reading this book because the sight of these boils made their stomach turn.

With that said, they put forth the message that you can't judge a book by its cover (or a person based on their physical appearance). Brunt is beautiful because his heart is good and he is kind and loving. He isn't beautiful because of his skincare routine.

Everything else in this book looks phenomenal.

Can we get something off our chests though? We're still not entirely comfortable with this relationship between Brunt and Eggbert. Yes, we know this is a children's book and it's supposed to be lighthearted, innocent, and not taken so seriously. We just can't shake that Brunt was some adult monster who found this little boy, now they live together and are always together. And Brunt seems to have quite a bit of power in this relationship dynamic. He even "demands" to know where Eggbert and Wreck have been all day. We were a bit surprised by that, although you could chalk it up to Brunt being so caring that he shows emotions when he's worried or concerned. It does come across as a little possessive, like when Brunt reflects on when it was just him and Eggbert without Wreck in the picture.

Wreck is arguably our favorite character in the entire series so far. She's a menace! But she's a cute little menace. She kinda reminded us of that crazy little fuzzy mascot from the Honey-Comb cereal commercials, or maybe of a troll doll. We love that she has little baby snakes and scorpions in her hair! It reminded us of a Gorgon/Medusa. She's so expressive, and it's funny to see the mischief in her eyes!

Check it out on Amazon!