Itty Bitty Betty Blob - Constance Lombardo - ★★★★★

AUTHOR: Constance Lombardo

ILLUSTRATOR: Micah Player

GENRE: Children's Picture Book

PUBLICATION DATE: June 4, 2024

RATING: 5 stars!

In a Nutshell: Oh, so adorable!!! Loved everything about this picture book! Much recommended to every little reader.

Plot Preview:

Itty Bitty Betty Blob is trying her best to be the perfect monster, but unlike the other residents of Ghoulington, she just doesn’t fit in. She loves colours, she loves pretty things, and, horror of horrors, she loves to smile for photographs. Even when she tries her best to be ugly and grumpy like all good little monsters should be, she ends up looking cute. With the dreaded Picture Day coming up soon at school, Betty knows that she needs to practise her grimaces and get her monster act together. Will she be able to *grrrr* her way to a memorable school photo?

Many times, you can just look at a book and feel in your gut that it is going to be a fabulous one. (Yeah, totally judging the book by the cover here!) Often, your gut is also wrong about such anticipations. But in this case, the content of this itty bitty picture book matches the cover perfectly.

The story is an outright winner, not because of any innovative feature in the plot (there have been other stories with similar themes) but because of the approach.

Betty is happy to do her own thing, even though she is the only monster in Ghoulington who wanders towards the brighter side of life. She is rarely bothered by what others say, and best of all, she knows that “fierce is not me.” Despite this, Picture Day creates dread in her. It goes to show how even self-aware individuals have their moments of doubt.

While Betty is the most outstanding character, her mother comes a close second, despite her limited role. She is encouraging and supportive as a parent without resorting to pressure, accusations, or emotional blackmail. Loved her!

While I don’t consider a moral as a necessary component of a picture book, the best books do deliver an important message with the plot. In this case, the message is something all children (and adults) ought to follow: follow your heart and do what makes you happy, instead of moulding yourself to fit others’ expectations. At the same time, the story doesn’t cast judgemental comments on the other monsters for being what they are. I appreciate this as well. ‘To each, their own’ is such a good policy for everyone to remember, as long as it doesn’t involve matters of danger or harm.

The story is written in simple text that somehow feels poetic without being outright poetry. The words are strung together beautifully, and often use alliteration, one of my favourite figures of speech for kiddie books. The text has some difficult words, but none that cannot be guessed from context.

The illustrations are fabulous. The monster world, other than Betty, is shaded in dull earth hues, so our bright pink Betty stands out on every page. The Indian in me loves vibrant colours in picture books. To see the vividly radiant Betty against the drab Ghoulington background is aesthetically pleasing. There is another “place” that pops up in the story, and seeing the contrast between the two locations is a viscerally satisfying experience. The text also caters to the colour scheme, with Betty’s speech bubbles in bubblegum pink while all the other characters and the general text have plain black writing.

All in all, this is an outstanding picture book that delivers on plot, message, and illustrations.

Heartily recommended! Itty Bitty Betty Blob will create a monstrous [pun intended!] impact on its itty-bitty readers. The book will work well for ages 4-8.

5 gargantuan stars. (This rating is further endorsed by my not-so-little itty bitty monster who adored the book as much as I did.)

My thanks to Astra Publishing House and NetGalley for the DRC of “Itty Bitty Betty Blob”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.