Review: Beware the Blue Bagoo by Karl Newson

 

Genre: Children's 4-6

Published: February 7, 2023

Pages: 32

BEWARE the Blue Bagoo! Join in with the detective who is on the trail of a mysterious blue creature in this fun picture book!

A detective tries to uncover the truth about the infamous “Blue Bagoo”—a creature so big and scary that it can’t possibly be made up, can it?

Our detective addresses us—the reader—on the very first page, and then walks the winding cobbled streets of a Dr. Suess–esque seaside town, taking statements from the residents.  

The Blue Bagoo proves elusive, but rumors of its “supposed” qualities have spread throughout the town. However, as the investigation proceeds, there is a critical twist.... 

This is a tale of rumors and fears, that also teaches us a gentle lesson about jumping to conclusions and judging others!

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

There are areas where this story rhymes, but I feel like that's more happy coincidence than intentional because it is not consistent throughout the book. That's fine though because I would rather a book not rhyme at all than force rhymes with weird sentence structure (as I'm sure you're aware if you've read some of my other kids book reviews). This was a story that felt more moved along by the pictures than the narration, because most of the narration was short little snippets coming from different townspeople. But since the main message of the story seems to be that rumors can be very wrong and yet very damaging, it worked well for the story, since most rumors are just little bits and pieces you hear over time to form a larger picture. 

The illustrations themselves were pretty fun. I found myself looking for the blue bagoo in all of them, and I think I found most of them, maybe all of them if it's not present on all the pages (granted reading on my iPad might have affected the way I was viewing the pages as well). 

Even though this wasn't a very flowy story, I'd be okay reading it a few times, but I wouldn't want to read it too often. Overall I give it 3.6 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Karl Newson is a best-selling, multi-award-winning children's book author. Author of the award winning picture book I Am a Tiger, the best-selling I Really Really Need a Wee and The Same But Different Too, plus many more! His stories have been translated in 29 languages around the world. Karl grew up in Norwich, England, and was inspired to write his first story when his children were small… he’s been writing stories ever since. When Karl isn’t writing he enjoys a walk in the woods, listening to music and reading other biscuits. He lives in London, UK.

Andrea Stegmaier loves to make books. As a kid she made books for her dolls, later she made books for her kids, and now she makes books for everyone. She went to university to study architecture, but that’s a different story. Andrea lives with her family in Stuttgart, a busy town in Germany.