“J.P Homer’s ‘The Thesoddy’” is a good sign that this field is still accessible to young readers, even if it’s hidden in a world of bad puns and green goof-offs. A parody of the epic poem “The Odyssey” by J.D. Peterson, “Thesoddy” is a book good for a few laughs and bedtime stories but also a few headaches.

The tale follows the exploits of Thesod, who is on a voyage to save his homeland of Freeny by making an appeal to the goddess Afrodainty. With a ship made of metal and a crew of free-spirited monsters known as dar mofts, Thesod sails through a series of trials ranging from camel-worshipping nomads to the spirits of the Underwhere.

“The Thesoddy” may be based on Greek mythology, but its style owes more to Lewis Carroll than Homer. Full of nonsense words and cringingly hilarious puns such as the nomad Hatter and the underworld of Tartarsauce, it’s clear Peterson is as far from highbrow as you can get. Some light morals are buried in the jokes, but this is dominantly a book of wordplay – even though that wordplay occasionally stumbles over itself.

The main distraction is the endnotes explaining various jokes – they’re often clever and incorporate even more bad puns, but shouldn’t break a young reader’s focus by making them turn to the back of the book every page. They're best located as endnotes at the bottom of each page.

The endnotes are only an annoyance, but the pictures are a serious problem: amateurish and frightening when they should be amusing. Thesod’s facial features border on sleazy, the goddess Afrodainty looks like a cocktail waitress and the dar mofts could be rough drafts of carnival caricatures. Of course a book like this shouldn’t rely on realism, but it should rely on a working knowledge of digital illustration.