Children’s Book Review: “Captain Marvel: Beware the Flerken!”

Goose the Cat was the breakout star of Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel, the billion dollar blockbuster from 2019 that’s now playing on Disney+. For kids too young to watch the film or who just can’t get enough of Goose comes a charming picture book from Marvel Press on July 7th called Captain Marvel: Beware the Flerken! Kids and parents will love learning about Flerkens together while reading this silly story.

The book tells the story from the film, but from Goose’s point of view. Goose talks about how he arrived on planet earth, his previous owner Dr. Wendy Lawson, how he met Carol Danvers, and his new favorite person, Monica. But most importantly, it’s a story about the things Goose loves to “Slorp!”

Goose is very honest at the start of the book that he’s not really a cat, he’s a Flerken. He talks a lot about his love of slorping things like tuna and mice and the charming illustrations show blobs of purple goo on the next page where the thing Goose slorped previously were. But towards the end of the book, he asks if kids want to see him slorp, which is when you see what’s really inside his mouth. The dust jacket features characters from the story, but underneath that are purple tentacles on the hardcover book, making it look like Goose is trying to slorp your copy of the book!

The story was written by Calliope Glass, who has worked on a lot of movie tie-in books for Disney Press including Spider-Man Swings Through Europe!, Star Wars: Search Your Feelings, and The Nutcracker and the Four Realms: The Dance of the Realms. The charming illustrations come from Rob McClurkan, who brings a whimsical childlike charm to the world of Captain Marvel.

Kids and parents will love storytime with Captain Marvel: Beware the Flerken! It’s cute, funny, and charming all at the same time. It’s guaranteed to be one of their new favorites before you even get to the last page.

Alex Reif
Alex joined the Laughing Place team in 2014 and has been a lifelong Disney fan. His main beats for LP are Disney-branded movies, TV shows, books, music and toys. He recently became a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA).