Kirkus calls 102 by Matthew Cordell a “visual stunner” and “a quirky, off-kilter adventure that’s somehow all the more enticing for its oddness” in starred review

★ 102
Written and illustrated by Matthew Cordell
Pub Date: Apr 2026

“Fever dream meets modern fable in a kaleidoscopic numerological adventure.

Home sick with a fever, pale-skinned George is surprised when a mouse with something tiny (a bean?) in its mouth skitters across the kitchen floor. Mama captures the “little intruder,” and George puts it in an empty tank in his bedroom. By bedtime, poor George’s fever has risen to 102. “At precisely 1:02 A.M.,” a cricket wakes George, shrinks him to her size, and leads tiny George to meet a mother mouse. She explains that Father went to fetch the final ingredient for a 102-bean soup meant to heal their ailing little one, “but he’s not returned.” George retraces his steps and, regrown, apologizes to and releases Father. Waking at (you guessed it) 1:02 P.M. to 102-bean soup of his own, George recovers. “Perhaps you are asking, ‘Was it all a dream?’ ‘Was it all real?’” George, now 102 years old, holds both mementos and answers. Eccentric details drive this visual stunner, its scratchy, rainbow-hued spreads inked with 16 “multicolored (and multiscented) ballpoint pen[s]....used to completion.” Cordell’s exceptionally precise depictions of surreal imagery—a spider beaming over her 102 babies, the tiny protagonist fleeing a menacing owl—pairs with plainspoken text for a quirky, off-kilter adventure that’s somehow all the more enticing for its oddness. With strong nods to classics like Gulliver’s Travels and The Borrowers, this strange quest will captivate young readers.”

—Kirkus Reviews