The Smurfs #15: The Smurflings

Pages fall out easily.

Stories are great, my kid loves it!However, the printed font is too small. It is straining to read the text on the glossy pages.

Une manière de faire découvrir les schtroumpfs à ma famille aux USA

Wonderful books for children of a wide age range. Great for first readers too. The content is imaginative and educational.

Before going on to the review: the Smurflings originally came from the Smurfs cartoon show, appearing in Season 5 (1985-1986), with one of its characters being a pre-existing adult Smurf character that was on the show for two seasons prior to his de-aging along with his peers. Arguably this is one of the things Hanna-Barbera created for the cartoon show that could be considered its "jumping the shark" moment, as there were fans that felt the show worked well without the introduction of a group of youngsters to make the other older Smurfs have to watch out for them. My personal opinion is that the Smurflings' introduction could have worked better without having to de-age any of the adult characters. For the comic books, the Smurflings would only have one other main star appearance in "Halloween", and Snappy and Sassette would have a cameo in "You Don't Smurf Progress" (which hasn't yet been translated to English).Now for the main story: it plays out much like the cartoon episodes "The Smurflings" and "Sassette". Father Time is mentioned but doesn't have any actual appearance in the story. Sassette is more chatty than bratty, constantly asking questions about her existence and what-not, which hardly any of the Smurfs answer. Not a bad story adaptation overall. (A minor note in the adaptation: as mentioned by D.A. Martin on TV Tropes, in the original French version of this story, Tailor and Sculptor both share the same nickname, which is why when Papa Smurf originally called for Tailor, Sculptor showed up instead. This joke is rather untranslatable in English, so instead Papercutz has Papa Smurf identify both Sculptor and Tailor as "Smurf", with the joke being that "A Smurf is not the same as a Smurf", referencing the same joke in "The Smurfs And The Magic Flute".)The second story following it is "Puppy And The Smurfs", where Puppy is introduced, much like he was in the cartoon show around Season 5. Like the cartoon show, Puppy has a locket on his collar that only one person can open, and whoever opens it becomes the dog's master, while all others who try to open it get shocked. As it turns out, Baby Smurf is the only one who can open the locket, and it's fortunate that he does when Gargamel finds his way into the village and gets chased off in the end. Homnibus appears in the story, but Lord Balthazar (a Hanna-Barbera creation) does not. Again, not a bad story adaptation.The third story is "The Smurfs And The Little Ghosts". Gargamel and Azrael scare off some small ghosts haunting an area of ruins so he could get at their treasure. The ghosts show up at the Smurf Village to cause some trouble until Papa Smurf finds out why. The Smurfs join forces with the ghosts and bring along Puppy to scare Gargamel away from the ruins, although there was no success until the ghosts' father shows up to make Gargamel flee by throwing himself down into the moat.The fourth story is "The Smurfs And The Booglooboo", which is about a bird that makes a nest on top of Gargamel's chimney and his vain attempts to get rid of it and its baby after the egg in its nest hatches.All in all, with the exception of Papercutz's consistent "me, I don't likes" that ruin Grouchy's interpretation in English, it is a fun collection of stories that are worth being in your Smurf comic books collection.