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The Blue Lobster Reviewed By Ekta Garg of Bookpleasures.com
- By Ekta R. Garg
- Published December 15, 2011
- Childrens & Young Adults
Ekta R. Garg
Reviewer Ekta Garg: Ekta has actively written and edited since 2005 for publications like: The Portland Physician Scribe; the Portland Home Builders Association home show magazines; ABCDlady; and The Bollywood Ticket. With an MSJ in magazine publishing from Northwestern University Ekta also maintains The Write Edge- a professional blog for her writing. In addition to her writing and editing, Ekta maintains her position as a “domestic engineer”—housewife—and enjoys being a mother to two beautiful kids.
View all articles by Ekta R. Garg
Click Here To Purchase The Blue Lobster
Author: Robin Taylor-Chiarello
Illustrator: Lisa Bohart
Publisher: The Peppertree Press
ISBN: 978-1-936343-84-3
An unusual crustacean tries to make new friends and discovers his appearance turns other creatures away. When he’s trapped and captured, he fears the worst but learns quickly that above the waterline his unique qualities are admired. Author Robin Taylor-Chiarello offers young readers this premise in The Blue Lobster, a first book in a series designed to teach children about accepting—and even celebrating—the differences in other people.
A blue lobster recounts his tale. Under the water his life is solitary. Despite his efforts to talk to other lobsters, show them his fashionable wardrobe, and even dance for them, the other lobsters don’t talk to the blue lobster because of his color. He feels, keenly, this difference, and is saddened by it, and he doesn’t think things can get any worse when he accidentally wanders into a trap.
According to press materials, author Taylor-Chiarello based her simple story in part on a true news item she heard on the radio about a blue lobster caught in U.S. coastal waters. Blue-colored lobsters are incredibly rare. Some odds place them at one occurrence in two to five million. The other motivating factor for Taylor-Chiarello’s book came in the form of her own son who died due to a heart defect and was born blue.
The verse method works well for the book, although Taylor-Chiarello’s rhymes in places slightly lose their cadence. Also, her rhymes lack the correct punctuation and verb tenses in a few lines. But her charming story more than makes up for these minor deficiencies. Taylor-Chiarello effectively conveys the story’s main point—that a person’s looks or what one assumes to be “handicaps” shouldn’t be a deterrent to friendship and acceptance. Children will easily be able to grasp what should be an essential life tenet, and the book provides slightly older children with great conversation starters.
Lisa Bohart’s illustrations do Taylor-Chiarello’s story full justice. Her visual depiction of the book’s hero will certainly make children smile and takes away any of the “ick” factor some children might have about underwater creatures. Some variety among the lobsters on the last page would have made the illustrations even more charming and given the book that final special touch. But the illustrations are sweet all the same.
This reviewer highly recommends this book for all young readers and encourages those readers and parents alike to keep an eye out for the next book in the series, reportedly titled The Clam Diggers Ball.