RE: https://mastodon.world/@exocomics/115725447375222579
Three books on Li Chen's desk! I think the red one looks like the forthcoming Detective Beans book, "Detective Beans and the Map of Mystery", with a publish date of May/June 2026 😺 🕵🏻 📖 🌟 💜
https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/detective-beans-and-the-map-of-mystery-9781761353420
Read DETECTIVE BEANS & THE CASE OF THE MISSING HAT (2024) - Li Chen
This week I've read four (!!!) children's books about a kitten detective. I'm not usually a children's book person, I don't think this ever happened before. Also, every single one of them is delightful. Detective Beans is slightly easier to comment on so I'll start with this one.
It's by Li Chen (@exocomics) the Exocomics person. The story is super cute, and balanced well between the mischievous and the wholesome. I fully accept that a lot of us can tilt too far into cynical state to ever make children's books viable. The ones that are more about keeping a child compliant usually can get published and bought, then never loved. This somehow has the best of both worlds, and complimented the mood superbly.
The art is incredible too. I absolutely adore the way colours and shadows are used, and the paneling is gorgeous. It makes me want Cat Town on paper prints even more now.
iokevins
Mez 
Just… Josh 
Harm
Manic Emo Dream Ghoul