Excellent illustrations are what originally drew me to this book but once I got into it, that's all that I could find worthwhile.

I have, at best, a tenuous relationship with rhyming picture books. This is a prime example of what I don't like - rhyme scheme at the expense of everything else. Sentence clarity is sacrificed in order to maintain a rhyme to the point of being nearly incomprehensible. To make matters worse, its not even consistent. One page doesnt' rhyme at all and there is no even meter. Strict adherence should be applied globally. I could live with the rhyming issues if it had a strong plot.

"It’s rather strange, I’d have to say. 
I saw the thing just yesterday. 
What is it? 
What could it be? 
Someone please answer this for me!" 


A little girl encounters a strange creature in the forest and tries to figure out just what it is.  Strangely, the little creature is trying to do the very same thing with her.  

The story was written by Nicole Hoang when she was ten years old and her loving husband added brilliant illustrations and published her exact words as a gift to her at their wedding.  All the attendees received a copy too.  What an amazing idea! 

The story is one of wonder, exploration, and friendship.  It is written simply like a ten year old would and leaves lots of room for conversations about the creature, the little girl's feelings as she interacts with the creature.  Perhaps the young reader can create a name for it, thus labelling a brand new species of life.  This book has not a lot of depth a whole lot of heart.

What is it?  My question exactly.  There's a sort of appeal to the painted illustrations in this picture book, with a weird critter picked out in red and blue and shades thereof, but it appears, terrorises a cutesy big-headed girl, and leaves, the end.  There's no point.  And the rhythm of the verse is all over the place, meaning there are copious books to choose before this little one for your little one.

The illustrations are attractive and well-done, but the story is lacking, and the rhyme scheme often feels forced or unbalanced.

I just wasn't engaged with this book.  It just didn't work.

The story is about a little girl that meets something.  I kept hoping it would turn out to be something normal, and that she was overreacting, but no, it is a creature. 

And to me, that doesn't make a story.  It doesn't make it funny.  It doesn't make it special.

It should have been more than that.  In which case, we never find out what the "it" really was, other than a beastly creature.  So what.

Perhaps kids would like this.  

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This is a fun and well constructed read that any child would enjoy. It is colourful, engaging and easy to read as each page flows into the next telling the fun story of a young girl meeting an unusual creature. It sparks the imagination in a light hearted adventure whilst dreamlike illustrations help guide the plot. It is a beautiful piece of art that plants thoughts left to grow even after the book is finished. A quality piece of work that would make a charming present for any young reader.

I read this to my kids (age 4 and 3) and they laughed and thought the thing was silly. But as an adult, there were things I had problems with. Some lines rhymed, some didn't. The thing bit the girl, stomped on her locket for no reason I could tell so she kicks it. But when the thing runs away, she says it didn't tell her what it was or why it came. My first question was, why didn't she ask?? I read it to them a second time because they asked and I don't think I'll read it again. I'm trying to teach them to be kind.

I received an Arc from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

First, I would like to say that the illustrations on this book are lovely. I was drawn in by the picture and the girl's quest. Very quickly I became perplexed. I did not "get" the story. After reading what it is supposed to be I have to say I do not see any of the things described in the blurb. However, I found one of the reviews insightful. Apparently the author wrote the story when she was 10. Unfortunately her editor did not do much to improve it.

The lure of adventure and discovery of a mysterious creature intrigued me to pick up this title. The cover features gorgeous artwork that was also a tempting factor leading to my reading this book.

I tackled this one a little differently than normal. Rather than read it by myself, I read it aloud to my 6 year old son this time to see what he thought of it. This is the first picture book for the publisher's imprint KABOOM!, so who better to share it with than their target audience? 

The premise for this book was better than the follow through. According to the description, this story was written by Nicole Hoang when she was ten and it doesn't feel as though much was done to the story, editing wise, between then and now. The experience was poorer for that because there were awkward pauses in the story, forced rhyme schemes, and an ending that dropped off. It was so abrupt that I thought that perhaps my digital edition was missing a page.

My son liked the art as much as I did. The colors were very vivid and the style is absolutely perfect for storybooks. However, he got bored about halfway through the book and wanted to skip several pages. The pacing didn't work for him in much the same way it didn't for me.

I think the thought behind this book was a lovely idea: a wedding present illustrated by the husband based on a story by his wife. However, I believe for it to be truly successful, it ought to have been edited before being offered to a larger audience via traditional publishing methods. A more cohesive story would have made the book a more happy experience not only for me as a reader, but for me as a mother sharing it with my son.

Unh, the idea sounded so great and the book looks mysteriously cute, so I was very excited. What Is It? is about a girl, who meets this weird pink monster that suddenly starts to follow her and she flees from it. Basically water becomes the savior, but there's no reason why the monster does what it does and we don't get any answers to the question, what is it and mostly why? The "why" is the main point and plot-wise this is actually those two stars, since this makes no sense and doesn't create a story. There are no hints either, since there's hardly any content, so you cannot even make up your own answer, when you don't really get anything out of thus. I liked the rhymes, though. They are well made and interesting and it's hard to do that well.

The art is beautiful and the color theme of red and autumn hues looks stunning. I liked the watercolor approach and the art fit the story so well! The monster was very cute and not scary, which was a good thing. I didn't really like the structure though. Every other page was text and the rest pictures. The blank text pages look hollow and boring, which is a bummer. The art in itself is fully five stars and I'd like to frame most of the pictures to my wall and that's always great. The art makes the book better, but doesn't correct its fundamental problems.

When a little girl's imagination sparks, an odd creature follows her about until she laughs at it.

This book was absolutely adorable, and was, I am told, written by the author as a child. Unfortunately I think the lack of any point or resolution means I can't recommend it very much.

The art, however, is lovely.

I enjoyed “What Is It,” but the ending was too abrupt. It felt like there should be more, or *spoiler alert* it should come back and they should be friends or something. In other words, it seemed like a missed opportunity for a lesson on not judging based on appearance.

I am in love with this book.  I want so many of the illustrations to frame and hang on my wall.  The rhyming story is cute, and you never do figure out what it is.  But it is a purple fluffy thing, with whom I would love to be friends.

Added Goodreads
Added Litsy (if available.  It was hard to find on goodreads).

The rhyme-scheme was filled with painfully juvenile couplets and the story itself was not that interesting. I could imagine a group of preschoolers cackling at the "it bit my behind" line, but the story itself was just a bit pointless.

With some changes this could be a beautiful children's book but there's something lacking at the minute. 

The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous and bring so much to the book, although I think it could benefit from having something small on the text pages too. 

It's the writing that's the problem here, I understand the author wrote it as a child, which is lovely and should be celebrated but simple things like changing the order of some of the words would help it to make much more sense. Also, there doesn't seem to be much point to the story. We never find out who/what the monster is or why it's there. Does the girl ever see the monster again? Basically, it asks more than it answers. That's not to say it's all bad though, the rhymes are lovely and it flows really nicely. 

I would absolutely look in to buying this for my job as a nursery nurse if some of these problems were addressed but in its current form I think it would be far more likely to confuse the children than interest them.

It was just OK. My son likes to ask "What is it?". So I thought that this would be a cute book to read to him.  Didn't really care for the story, which didn't explain what the monster was.

I was super confused by this book. While the drawings were GORGEOUS, the story itself made very little sense. So, What is it? What is the point? While I would gladly share the illustrations as conversation starters with my preschoolers, I don't see myself actually reading the story to them. I feel that they would be left feeling just as confused as I was.