Review: A cute, rhyming children's book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 29, 2013
Blucy: The Blue Cat by Julia Dweck is a children’s book about Mandy and her mischievous cat.Mandy is at the pound looking for a new friend when she spots a kitten named Lucy and falls in love. Once they head home, Mandy soon learns that her kitten is very different from other cats. Lucy’s fur changes color, specifically blue, depending on her mood. Since Lucy is the only cat that Mandy knows that is able to turn blue she decides to change her name to Blucy.Mandy has ideas about training and developing a relationship with her kitten; however, she finds that Blucy has ideas of her own. Blucy is a handful that prefers to dive into a bowl of blue Jell-O, swim in the pool, hide in the flower beds, and draw self-portraits with Mandy’s blue crayon. She pulls down a curtain rod, shreds a basket of Mandy’s laundry, and even tears apart wrapped packages that are hidden in the closet. No matter what she does, Mandy can’t seem to get close to her new friend.One day, Mandy has an idea about a new treat that she hopes will bring Blucy and her closer together. Their relationship blooms from there and soon Blucy is more drawn to friendship than trouble.Julia Dweck has written a creative, rhyming book for children and one that my 3-year-old thoroughly enjoys. The illustrations by Erika LeBarre are perfect for the storyline and really bring the characters to life. In fact, as I sit here writing this review my daughter is sitting next to me and “reading” the book to me based on the pictures. I love the vibrant use of colors and the multiple hues of blue that are introduced.I also feel it is important to note that I love how the book is formatted. Each page fills the entire screen when I turn my Kindle Fire to landscape mode. I often find that ebooks are not formatted properly which can be rather distracting to the reader and extremely distracting when attempting to share a children’s book, often with a lot of pictures, with your little one. Kudos to Dweck for paying close attention to such details.As a bonus, the book includes a few fun facts about cats as well as a “find the object” activity. This is a great book to share with little ones and one that I recommend.