Tuesday 25 December 2012

Naked Trevor by Rebecca Elliott (Children's, Picture book, 9/10E)



January 2013, Templar 
32 pages, Paperback
Review copy 

Themes: being different, having to fit in, ignoring tradition, being brave, accidents, being yourself, finding yourself, acceptance, a lot of laughs

Summary from Amazon UK (I don't benefit from mentioning them, at the time of writing this review Templar don't yet have Naked Trevor on their website)

Meet Trevor! He's no ordinary bird... he wants to be totally naked! It's a well-kept secret that all birds are naked, and every morning they put on their feathery clothes to go about their day. But Trevor refuses to wear his sparrow outfit, much to the horror of his family. In a quest to find his own unique look, he crashes into a pile of sticky mud and colourful flowers. He ends up looking the best he ever has, inspiring the birds around him to shed their own boring outfits!

Nayuleska's thoughts

If I hadn't seen the cover, and didn't know what it was about, I wouldn't have opted to read this. I mean, my internet search engine which is on 'strict' wouldn't let me see it! There is absolutely nothing inappropriate in this book. It's very clever the way the animals are all naked - they just wear clothes of feathers! Or, in the case of Trevor, other things. He strikes out, determined to feel more like himself and be different. It's really hard because most disapprove and want him to copy them. But he perseveres and in the end gets an extraordinary reaction. 

As well as the concept I loved the looks from the other birds & animals, as well as all the little captions that were on every page, which gave the other characters depth to their personality. The only reason this colour read is 9/10 is that some of the illustrations were drawn in such a way it looked as if the birds had two eyes in the wrong places. It's not often, and the rest of the fabulous read more than makes up for that bizarre sight. 

You can find out more on Rebecca's website

Suggested read

For another creature who is different from the others check out Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell by Sue Hendra

5 comments:

ali said...

Hiya!

i found this blog a long time ago, but only started following it today so that instead of checking a lot I could just log into my blog and see if you'd posted or not! ;) Cool blog!

Nayuleska said...

Hi Ali! Thank you for coming by - I'm so glad you enjoy it! I mostly try and post daily, so hopefully there will be lots for you to read ^o^

ali said...

Yep, it's always cool to see you've posted in the middle of the night, my time zone! XD I never have to wait all day going, "maybe they'll post in an hour."

Nayuleska said...

^o^ I post just after midnight my time (England) because I mostly pre-schedule my reviews. I don't see the point in waiting until later in the morning (7-8am) because my blog is read by people all over the world, on different time zones. Like your avatar!

ali said...

Sorry for the late reply--thank you, I drew it myself! I've improved a little since then...maybe I should try a redraw and see if it got any better. That would be cool. ;) If you CAN draw--maybe you could put a few on your blog. :)