What do you think?
Rate this book
K Is in Trouble #2
K Is in Trouble AGAIN
Misfortune abounds in this surreal graphic novel about the life of one persistently unlucky kid named K—who is, once again, very, very much in trouble.
K just keeps getting in trouble!
Trouble finds him when a mischievous goat eats his train ticket. Trouble finds him stowed away in a barrel of apples. Trouble finds him stranded on a ridiculously high diving board. Trouble even finds him way out at sea, floating in a beach cabana with only a bird, a whale, and cucumber sandwiches to keep him company.
But it’s not all bad news for K—the stories in this volume find him reunited with his old friend the talking beetle, taking a restorative trip to the sea, and making the acquaintance of a young girl—though he forgets to ask her name!
Join K as he tries (and fails!) to stay out of trouble in this new set of adventures from Gary Clement.
K just keeps getting in trouble!
Trouble finds him when a mischievous goat eats his train ticket. Trouble finds him stowed away in a barrel of apples. Trouble finds him stranded on a ridiculously high diving board. Trouble even finds him way out at sea, floating in a beach cabana with only a bird, a whale, and cucumber sandwiches to keep him company.
But it’s not all bad news for K—the stories in this volume find him reunited with his old friend the talking beetle, taking a restorative trip to the sea, and making the acquaintance of a young girl—though he forgets to ask her name!
Join K as he tries (and fails!) to stay out of trouble in this new set of adventures from Gary Clement.
216 pages, Paperback
Published April 15, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 2, 2025
I enjoyed the first book, but this sequel just didn't have the same spark, maybe because there were fewer stories about oppressive authority figures and too many absurd stories about animal encounters. The running gag with the goat, for instance, just didn't work for me.
I'd certainly check out whatever Gary Clement does next, even if it is a third book about K.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: K Goes on a Visit -- K Goes Swimming -- K by the Sea -- K Is in Trouble Again -- K Has Visitors
I'd certainly check out whatever Gary Clement does next, even if it is a third book about K.
FOR REFERENCE:
Contents: K Goes on a Visit -- K Goes Swimming -- K by the Sea -- K Is in Trouble Again -- K Has Visitors
July 25, 2025
This is a Middle Grade Graphic Novel, and this is the second book in the K is in Trouble series. I have not read the first book in this series before picking up this book. I found this book fun to read, and the pictures were very cute. I received an ARC of this book. This review is my own honest opinion about the book like all my reviews are.
February 25, 2025
Review submitted to School Library Journal for publication in the upcoming SMS Fiction article.
February 8, 2025
ARC Copy...as the title clearly states yep K is in trouble AGAIN via a series of Kafka-ques situations and bad luck with heavy doses of equally bad adults in his life! Hilarious!
December 17, 2025
I had just read the first volume and loved it, so I just blew through K is in Trouble AGAIN #2 by Gary Clement, who should get all sorts of prizes for this new series in part based on the stories of Franz Kafka in spite of the fact that the largely middle grades readership this series targets will not have heard of Kafka. But Clement says in an afterword that he went to Prague to walk down the same streets Kafka walked, as he loved Kafka from early on. Kafka often just named his main characters K.
The first collection feels more like Kafka in his struggles (trouble!) with bureaucracy, and this book has more crazy meandering tale tales such as K being sent to his grandparents who were not his grandparents, having a goat eat his money and return ticket, to sneak on the train back. Or get caught in a cabana, get washed out to sea and get rescured by a whale. Silly, not so Kafkaesque in my estimation, thogh there is some craziness in Kafka, too. I still liked it, I like the art, I like the beleaguered K, but liked the darker, meaner first volume better.
Oh, but I like the beetle, a recurring image/character! As many of you know and maybe had read in school, Kafka imagines his main character in "The Metamorphosis" wakes up to find he has turned into a bug/beetle. And here he is!!
The first collection feels more like Kafka in his struggles (trouble!) with bureaucracy, and this book has more crazy meandering tale tales such as K being sent to his grandparents who were not his grandparents, having a goat eat his money and return ticket, to sneak on the train back. Or get caught in a cabana, get washed out to sea and get rescured by a whale. Silly, not so Kafkaesque in my estimation, thogh there is some craziness in Kafka, too. I still liked it, I like the art, I like the beleaguered K, but liked the darker, meaner first volume better.
Oh, but I like the beetle, a recurring image/character! As many of you know and maybe had read in school, Kafka imagines his main character in "The Metamorphosis" wakes up to find he has turned into a bug/beetle. And here he is!!
March 18, 2025
I want to start this review by noting that I haven't read the first K book, and maybe I am missing some context from that.
The art of this book is really fun. K's personality and the reference to Kafka is clear in the imagery. His face is very expressive and I liked the simple drawings of others, though I felt like the words were perhaps a bit too shouty at times ("K By the Sea," notably).
Overall, I found this book just a little hard to get attached to. The first stories felt less interesting than the later ones--"K Gets Caught" was my personal favorite, perhaps because it was one of the only stories where anyone was at all nice to poor K!
As a boring adult, I didn't love that every adult was so actively mean to K, and my 10 year old found it strange. I know that it is supposed to be strange and Kafka-esque, but it didn't quite read as funny overall to him or me.
There is some very strange fun to be had here, but perhaps for a slightly older audience.
I did laugh out loud at the last page!
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown for letting me read this ARC Copy of the book!
The art of this book is really fun. K's personality and the reference to Kafka is clear in the imagery. His face is very expressive and I liked the simple drawings of others, though I felt like the words were perhaps a bit too shouty at times ("K By the Sea," notably).
Overall, I found this book just a little hard to get attached to. The first stories felt less interesting than the later ones--"K Gets Caught" was my personal favorite, perhaps because it was one of the only stories where anyone was at all nice to poor K!
As a boring adult, I didn't love that every adult was so actively mean to K, and my 10 year old found it strange. I know that it is supposed to be strange and Kafka-esque, but it didn't quite read as funny overall to him or me.
There is some very strange fun to be had here, but perhaps for a slightly older audience.
I did laugh out loud at the last page!
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown for letting me read this ARC Copy of the book!
July 13, 2025
Book 144 of 350 ~ 2025
🌟🌟🌟🌟
What an odd duck of a book! I was quite tickled by the cray² series of unfortunate incidences that K got himself in and out of.
Can't seem to find book 1 unfortunately.
I received a complimentary copy of the ebook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#book144of350 #amreading #netgalley #tbrpile #instareads #readstagram #reading #bookreview #bookreviewer #booklover #booksAreLife #booksForTheWin #booknerds #thisbookfairyisreading #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramfeature #bookshelf #booksofinstagram #bookish #bookworm #goodreads #booklovers #bookaddict #theSGbookfairyReads #theSGtrekkiereads #bookaholic #bookchallenge2025 #reviews #lovebooks
🌟🌟🌟🌟
What an odd duck of a book! I was quite tickled by the cray² series of unfortunate incidences that K got himself in and out of.
Can't seem to find book 1 unfortunately.
I received a complimentary copy of the ebook. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#book144of350 #amreading #netgalley #tbrpile #instareads #readstagram #reading #bookreview #bookreviewer #booklover #booksAreLife #booksForTheWin #booknerds #thisbookfairyisreading #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagramfeature #bookshelf #booksofinstagram #bookish #bookworm #goodreads #booklovers #bookaddict #theSGbookfairyReads #theSGtrekkiereads #bookaholic #bookchallenge2025 #reviews #lovebooks
August 27, 2025
Our hapless hero K is back again for another series of misadventures. At school or at play, the poor kid just can't seem to catch a break. I was wild about the first K book, but his tales of woe have lost a little of the charm for me this time around. I did like that the talking beetle, basically K's only friend and confidant, is back again, and that there seems to be a setup for a potential friendship/romance in further volumes. And, indeed, I hope there is more to come. This is a unique series, and I'd definitely like to see it continue.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Ink for sharing.
Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Ink for sharing.
December 17, 2025
I didn’t realize this was the second book but I don’t think it put me at a disadvantage. I was utterly charmed by these funny strange stories and their earnest hero. It all reminded me extremely fondly of one of my favorite childhood author/illustrators James Stevenson. Looking forward to recommending this to people.
October 21, 2025
Another great book, but not up to par with the first one. As other reviewers have said, the magic of the first was K’s constant unintentional clash with authority. This story focused on animals, and it didn’t have the same effect. Still enjoyable!
June 26, 2025
TW: bullying
Once again Gary delivered a brilliant and heartbreakingly cosy and fun collection.
Once again Gary delivered a brilliant and heartbreakingly cosy and fun collection.
August 22, 2025
Poor K!
December 20, 2025
Better than book one!
June 8, 2026
I feel bad for K.
July 30, 2025
I’m on some kind of a bad losing streak with book sequels lately. It’s not as if this book is bad—K Is In Trouble AGAIN is a fine, three-out-of-five-stars read! This is another case of “this one wasn’t for me,” because I just didn’t find the same amount of electric magic that dazzled me in the first book in this series. The most enjoyable story in this book is the first one, “K GOES ON A VISIT,” in which K’s parents tell him that he is being sent to visit his grandparents. K makes a long and thankless journey on a slow train, a “creaky old raft,” and a “long, slow ride over a rugged, dusty road in the back of a hay wagon” just to arrive at the address listed as his grandparents’ farm. When he arrives, K meets a grumpy farmer and his equally grumpy wife—not his grandparents—who promptly slam the door in his face.
After it begins to rain, K runs into the farmers’ barn and stays there for the night, but also gets bothered by the farmer’s goat, who eats K’s train ticket home and money. K’s luck briefly turns around in this story (and a few moments in the other stories in this book) when a farm girl gives him food and helps him devise a plan to escape and return home. After the farm girl explains the escape plan to K, which involves hiding in apple barrels, K is full of nervous energy: “Bur what if I get caught? What if I get into some kind of trouble?” This farm girl, who is easily the best character in this book, also seems to be the common sense antithesis to K’s anxious existence as she says, “If you just stick to the plan…then everything will be OK, K. Besides…what other choice do you have?” The farm girl and the grumpy farmers make another appearance in the book’s last story (“K HAS VISITORS”), while the goat keeps turning up like a bad penny for poor K!
There’s still plenty of charming moments throughout K Is in Trouble AGAIN that showcase the many inconvenient ways that life turns out to be troublesome for K. In “K BY THE SEA,” K and his mother visit the doctor’s office, and it is noted, “Although there were no other patients, K and his mother had to wait a long time.” K is told by this doctor to rest at the seaside, then told by another doctor that he got too MUCH rest by the sea, explicitly telling K’s parents, “AND MAKE SURE HE GETS EXTRA HOMEWORK!” A snowball fight breaks out in the story sharing its name with this sequel, and K is the only kid in school who gets in trouble, despite only throwing one! Of course, with K having the luck that he does, that snowball does accidentally land in Professor X’s face…!
This book is well-written, and just because I didn’t find whatever it is I’m always looking for, doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. Maybe I’ll give this one a try again in a few years and see if I grow to like it more. As it stands, I still have a good amount of affection for K, the farm girl, and this book series, and if K ends up getting into more trouble, I’m still interested in seeing what large and small calamities happen to K next!
After it begins to rain, K runs into the farmers’ barn and stays there for the night, but also gets bothered by the farmer’s goat, who eats K’s train ticket home and money. K’s luck briefly turns around in this story (and a few moments in the other stories in this book) when a farm girl gives him food and helps him devise a plan to escape and return home. After the farm girl explains the escape plan to K, which involves hiding in apple barrels, K is full of nervous energy: “Bur what if I get caught? What if I get into some kind of trouble?” This farm girl, who is easily the best character in this book, also seems to be the common sense antithesis to K’s anxious existence as she says, “If you just stick to the plan…then everything will be OK, K. Besides…what other choice do you have?” The farm girl and the grumpy farmers make another appearance in the book’s last story (“K HAS VISITORS”), while the goat keeps turning up like a bad penny for poor K!
There’s still plenty of charming moments throughout K Is in Trouble AGAIN that showcase the many inconvenient ways that life turns out to be troublesome for K. In “K BY THE SEA,” K and his mother visit the doctor’s office, and it is noted, “Although there were no other patients, K and his mother had to wait a long time.” K is told by this doctor to rest at the seaside, then told by another doctor that he got too MUCH rest by the sea, explicitly telling K’s parents, “AND MAKE SURE HE GETS EXTRA HOMEWORK!” A snowball fight breaks out in the story sharing its name with this sequel, and K is the only kid in school who gets in trouble, despite only throwing one! Of course, with K having the luck that he does, that snowball does accidentally land in Professor X’s face…!
This book is well-written, and just because I didn’t find whatever it is I’m always looking for, doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy it. Maybe I’ll give this one a try again in a few years and see if I grow to like it more. As it stands, I still have a good amount of affection for K, the farm girl, and this book series, and if K ends up getting into more trouble, I’m still interested in seeing what large and small calamities happen to K next!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews