Review: Blue Badger and the Beautiful Berry by Huw Lewis Jones

Genre: Children's 4-6

Published: February 7, 2023

Pages: 32

This funny, witty and whimsical title is the latest installment from the Blue Badger series, following the lovable badger and his sometimes awkward attempts to navigate life.

Life is good for Badger, bumbling about and eating berries day and night.
His friends accept him, Dog’s favourite ball has been recovered,
and he is finally master of his own destiny.
 
Until another badger turns up and takes a liking to his berries...
Can Badger learn to share?
Is there more to life than berries?
Every new friend is a new adventure…

This fun, colourfully illustrated and witty picture book will delight children and adults alike with its charmingly-told story.

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

I thought this was going to be a rhyming book based on the first page of the story. It is not and I was a little disappointed by that. I don't know that it necessarily would have been a very good book if it had rhymed, but for some reason I was looking for that. 

It's a pretty simple book with minimal words, but they're not necessarily simple words, so I wouldn't recommend this book for a budding reader who isn't already decently confident in their reading skills. It's not a repetitive story, at least not terribly repetitive. It also doesn't seem to have much point on the surface. I'm pretty sure the underlying message is about making friends with people who have similar interests to you. The last line kind of made me giggle too. 

The illustrations were minimal on large swaths of solid color. It worked really well for some of the pages, others seemed a bit dull to me. But I'm not a small child (regardless of how much I act like one) so it's not like I'm really the target audience anyway. 

I don't think I'd want to read this book too many times over, but a couple re-reads would be doable. Overall I give it 3.2 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Huw Lewis Jones is a writer and teacher who loves wild nature. He creates books for adults about maps and explorers, whilst for children it’s mostly been apples so far. With wife Kari and daughter Nell, he lives in a little house in Cornwall, though often spends his summers at the North Pole.

Ben Sanders is an award-winning illustrator. His work can be seen on the pages of Wall Street Journal, Monocle, Columbia Journalism Review, and Australian Geographic. His work has assisted Vodacom, Toyota, Visa, Bridgestone, Cadbury, and The Natural Confectionery Co. move product from shelves. Ben writes and illustrates for Hachette/Lothian and Thames & Hudson.