Scribbles and Ink. Ethan Long. Maplewood, NJ: Blue Apple Books, 2012. ISBN 9781609052058

Disclosure: I received a DRC from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this one purely for the art. I thought it looked like a quirky, fun book. This is first book I’ve read by Ethan Long, but it looks like he’s published quite a few. I think I’ll be checking out more of his work. According to Long’s website, these characters may appear on television in the future. I think they’re a perfect fit for the TV.

Scribbles and Ink are two different artists with different styles. Ink in the painter, and he loves precision. Scribbles likes to draw with a rough flair. They can’t seem to agree to disagree about their artistic differences and instead turn to knock-down, drag-out art fight.

This one feels a lot like Tom and Jerry with an artistic spin. Of course rather than playing the classic cat-and-mouse game, these two would rather insult each other. As the argument escalates, the two begin retaliating by drawing or painting—for example, Ink draws a dog to scare Scribbles. It’s a good book for readers who like a lot of action and antics. I loved both of the characters, and chuckled along. In the fashion of most children’s books, there’s a lesson a message. This one, in particular, is one most children need to learn: it’s important to learn to work together. I highly recommend this book to readers ages 6+.

Disclosure: I received a DRC from the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Quite a while ago I requested some picture book DRCs on edelweiss from Blue Apple Books. I finally took some time to read them, and I really enjoyed most of them.Red Cat, Blue Cat is fortunate enough to have good art and a good message. I just with the title were a little more interesting.

In this tale, a red cat and a blue cat each live in the same house. One is fast and agile, the other clever. Each of them wishes they were like the other and spend most of the book trying to turn learn from the each other. The message lies in the importance of being who we are, and not to envy the talents of others.

It’s a good message and I think Desmond approaches it in a good way for kids. It’s easy for children to develop self-esteem issues similar to what these two cats are going through. I think addressing that we all have our own talents is important in developing good self-esteem. What drew me to pick up the book in the first place was the art. Desmond’s bold artistic style works well with the story inside. I recommend this to children ages 4+.