Blue Chameleon

January 31, 2011
In this small-scale but lively diversion, Greenaway Medalist Gravett (Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears) explores the possibilities of chameleon friendship—or even love. "I'm lonely," a blue chameleon says, knobby elbows scrunched sadly on knobby knees. If a chameleon is blue, whom does he woo? "Hi," says the chameleon on the left-hand page to a banana on the right; he's curved his body and changed his skin to match the banana. "Hello Hello Hello," he says to an unimpressed pink cockatoo, turning pink and angling his arms to duplicate her wings. A "swirly" snail, a brown boot, a "stripy" sock (the book also functions as a light primer on colors and patterns)—the chameleon can make himself look like anything. He can even turn white and disappear into the page (a white varnished outline shows him lying along the foot of the spread). Worry not: a happy ending is in store. As always, Gravett's art charms; colored pencil lines on rough paper give the pages warmth, and the chameleon's "disguises" repay attention as readers spot similarities to and differences from the things the chameleon mimics. Ages 2–6.

January 15, 2011

A lonely chameleon pines for a pal. Blue in mood and hue, with slumped posture and anxious eyes, this protagonist is really sad. Each creamy white spread features the chameleon and one potential companion, such as "Pink cockatoo" or "Swirly snail." The eager lizard greets each one while beautifully, arrestingly adopting their color patterns and shape. A chameleon claw becomes snail antennae on one page, cowboy-boot spurs on the next. Readers understand why a brown boot and yellow banana don't respond to overtures, but live creatures seem intimidated—a grasshopper springs away off the page's edge and a fish looks decidedly nonplussed. Finally so forlorn that even flopping onto a gray rock and becoming gray doesn't convey it, the chameleon melts into the page. Here Gravett's gorgeous colored-pencil lines vanish, and her roughly textured paper offers the challenge of tipping the page to find an angle at which the chameleon's outline—now in white on white, like shiny dry glue—is visible. Luckily a small "Hello?" peeps from the following page, where a colorfully festive ending awaits. Both chameleons and friendship populate children's picture books liberally, but this one's well worth adding to the shelf. (Picture book. 2-5)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2011

PreS-K-A clever concept book with emotional punch and magnificent art is a rare treat. In Gravett's latest triumph, readers meet a despondent chameleon on the front endpapers. He searches for a companion, transforming himself to mirror the objects he finds: a yellow banana, a pink cockatoo, a swirly snail. Each spread sports only two words, plus the chameleon's speech bubble. "Howdy," he says to the cowboy boot. For "Gold fish," he contorts his body into a fishy shape, stares plaintively at the fish across the page, and speaks in empty air bubbles. No one will return his greeting, and finally he crawls onto a gray rock and gives up. The next page is completely white, save for the embossed outline of the chameleon. But what's that reaching from the next page and tapping the chameleon on the tail? The page turn reveals a new friend, and the two chameleons-now rainbow hued from joy-walk off the endpapers together. Libraries may choose to remove the dust jacket rather than tape over the story's ending. While the simple text is appropriate for toddlers, the book is clever enough for older children to enjoy. Gravett's design and art are exceptional, from the masterful use of white space down to the concrete poem of a chameleon created with the copyright and publication information.-Suzanne Myers Harold, Multnomah County Library System, Portland, OR

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2011
Preschool-K Playful and spare, this nearly wordless picture book from a multi-award-winning British author-illustrator tells a deceptively simple story of self-acceptance. A lonely chameleon, shown first in indigo and aquamarine body shades to reflect his blue mood, tries to make friends, and on each spread, he morphs into colors and forms that resemble his potential pals: yellow and crescent-shaped when he approaches a banana; pink and tufted as he chases after a cockatoo; a purple polka-dot coil as he rolls toward a beach ball. Finally, he sighs, I give up, before receding, in barely perceptible, 3-D lines of glossy ink, into a white page. Then he spots another chameleon, wildly colored and patterned, just like him, and the two rejoice. The storys concept loses a bit of steam on this last spread. (Is the message to make friends with those of your own kind?) But children will enjoy the humor and detail in the beautiful colored-pencil illustrations, strikingly contrasted against blank white pages, and theyll recognize the chameleons elemental struggle to fit in and connect.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)