Double Trouble: Jimmy Sniffles

Jimmy Sniffles

by Scott Nickel

Jimmy Sniffles's archenemy devises a plan to create an evil twin from Jimmy's nose hair.

Audible Audio

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Growing up, Scott Nickel wanted to be a comic book writer or a mad scientist. As an adult, he gets to do both. In his secret literary lab, Scott has created more than a dozen graphic novels for Stone Arch Books featuring time travel, zombies, robots, giant insects, and mutant lunch ladies. Scott's NIGHT OF THE HOMEWORK ZOMBIES received the 2007 Golden Duck award for Best Science Fiction Picture Book.

When not creating crazy comics, Scott squeezes in a full-time job as a writer and editor at Jim Davis' Garfield studio.

Check out Scott’s monstrously funny syndicated comic strip, EEK!, at Go Comics: http://www.gocomics.com/eek/

Reviews

[Sheri Smart]

I’ll Read it

[Chasen Meirovits · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book The Super-Powered Sneeze by Scott Nickel is a book about a young boy named Jimmy Sniffles who has caught a terrible cold which has forced him to miss school and be in bed all day, eating hot soup and taking care of his nose that just won't stop running. He is constantly sneezing and just can't find a way to get rid of his illness, no matter what he tries to do. As he lays down to watch TV on the couch, he sees his archenemy Dr. Von Snotenstein trying to take over the world with his newly-created Snot Bots who terrorize everybody in their path by shooting them with snot. Jimmy decides to take on his enemy and his army of bots by using their powers against them. As Jimmy fights off the bots and is left to face Dr. Von, he remembers about his super sneeze that can take out anything. He attempts to sneeze, but remembers that his doctor had given him medicine so that his nose would dry up. He decides to run to the pet store and surround himself with guinea pigs, which he is extremely allergic to and gains his powerful sneezing ability back. Jimmy destroys Dr Snotenstein's weapons and sends him back to his dream dimension.

The genre for this book would most likely fall under comedy and humor, based on the content of the story and the maturity level it meets. There are only a couple instances in the book where a double page spread is used. The panels on each page are red from top to bottom, and there are multiple panels within each page. Each panel is bordered and the white space that is used in between two panels somewhat signals a change in scene or segment in the story. Bordering the panels help follow the sequence of events that are happening and allow the reader to see the different perspectives of the story as they shift from Jimmy to the villain Dr. Von Snotenstein. The impact that the word balloons/sound effects have in the story are vital because the main topic of the book is sneezing. That action itself represents an infinite amount of sound effects that can be expressed as one would naturally sneeze. The phrases "Splat", "Splort", and of course "AACHOOO!" are used to help the reader hear the sound as it occurs during the story and help envision how a certain noise would sound. What I thought to be most interesting about this novel was definitely the illustrations. They are very creative and are the main focus of the graphic novel because without the images, the reader would not be able to create a clear image of the characters and other parts of the book. The target audience is probably Kindergarten to 1st grade students due to the material of the book. Overall, I was satisfied with the creativity used to make the book and enjoyed how the author took the simplicity of a sneeze and turned it into a humorous story.

[C.W. Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 6 year old loves this book.