Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett

Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett
Buy Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: For Sharing
Reviewer: Keith Dudhnath
Summary: Simple, sparse and minimalist it may be, but it's superb, laced with humour and wonderful illustrations. Emily Gravett does it again with an excellent book for the very youngest children. Highly recommended.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 32	Date: February 2010
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-0230704244
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The chameleon is feeling blue because he's lonely, so he goes and visits a yellow banana, pink cockatoo, swirly snail, brown boot, and so on. Each time, not only does he change his colour to match the object or animal, but he also contorts himself into a shape that matches them.

Blue Chameleon has a very simple premise, incredibly sparse text, and minimalist illustrations. Despite this - in fact, because of it - it's superb. The choices of the items are just that little bit different from similar books, and not limiting the adjectives to just colours also gives it an extra edge. Every page is laced with humour - just a little quirky twist here and there that catches the attention.

Emily Gravett's illustrations are as wonderful as ever. The crayon-like colours give the chameleon a perfect texture to his skin. Take a look at that front cover. Don't you just love the glum little chap? The cleverness of the chameleon twisting himself into a snail or a boot, complete with spurs, is an absolute joy to see.

Given its incredible simplicity, Blue Chameleon is best-suited for the very youngest book fans. There's plenty of scope for talking about each page, which will extend its life considerably, even when they've moved on to books with established plots. Children taking the very first steps into reading for themselves might well pick it up again from the bookshelf and work their way through it - I wouldn't get it just for that purpose, but it's testament to the quality that it will hold the attention of older readers.

It's absolutely wonderful. You'll love it. Highly recommended. Huge thanks to the publishers for sending it to Bookbag.

Too Purply! by Jean Reidy and Genevieve Leloup and Mr Pusskins - Colours by Sam Lloyd are both similar books, each with a charm and style of their own. They're all worth owning, but if it's a straight choice between the three, Blue Chameleon just pips them at the post. Older readers will lap up Emily Gravett's other work, including Spells and The Rabbit Problem.

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You can read more book reviews or buy Blue Chameleon by Emily Gravett at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
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