I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one didn't engage me much. Overall, it had an interesting message, but I just thought the execution fell a bit flat. I wasn't a huge fan of the illustration style.

Cute story about friendship and how to be good friends. I particularly Iiked the illustrations in this book - bright, bold colours and images really jumped out from the page and would be engaging for younger readers.

Charming characters that become friends despite the odds. A female who wants nothing to do with a boyfriend and just wants to enjoy some friends. A couple males who, while at first are fighting over a girl and being singled out as different, learn to become friends. A trio to warm your heart. The illustrations were brightly colored and adorable renditions of arctic mammals were joyous to look at.
#Icedout #Netgalley

<em>Iced Out</em> by C. K. Smouha and illustrated by Isabella Bunnell is the sort of children's book whose message I fully support, though I find the overall execution of it somewhat lacking. A story about being yourself and accepting others for who they are rather than judging them for their looks or things out of their control, <em>Iced Out</em> seeks to promote acceptance. Unfortunately, it does more to suggest that becoming friends with someone popular will make others accept you than anything else.

In general, the story was okay. It wasn't too clever or anything, but it had a clear goal that wasn't terrible. Still, I found a number of things odd and problematic. The story follows Wilfred and Neville, a walrus and a narwhal who are forced together by the mere circumstance of being disliked by the rest of their classmates. To make matters worse, the two actually don't even like each other. And resultingly, they're pretty miserable. But that all changes when Betty the beluga whale joins their class and the two of them quickly become quite obsessed, or smitten as the book says, with her.

Thus the two begin doing whatever they can to impress her. Neville even practices a soccer move to get her to like him. Ironically, he was cited as being disliked because he was bad at soccer and his "tooth" would often pop all the balls. And then for some reason, they both want Betty to choose between them and pick one to be her boyfriend. So. instead of working to improve skills for himself, he's merely trying to impress someone who isn't going to be impressed.

The resolution of the issues, moving into the acceptance of everyone, comes too quickly and too unrealistically. Thus, the achievements Wilfred and Neville find themselves getting as they begin to join their classmates in various activities feels rather contrived in the end. I felt odd about a lot of the things that happened and none of it ever really did a decent job of supporting the message that the book was clearly trying to send.

While the artwork was cute, overall I couldn't really bring myself to be all that impressed with this book overall. It just didn't work the way it seemed it was meant to.

<em>I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.</em>

Blog link for review to go live on 09/05/19.

Great book to illustrate the idea that being different is OK. I enjoyed the fact that there was a change of dynamics between the two original characters. I felt like a lot of inferring was needed to read this book, so it will probably require a bit of conversation for the younger readers to understand what is happening and the reasons behind it.

The concept is good, however I wish it was better. I also don't like that Wilfred and Neville are trying to get Betty to pick one of them to be their girlfriend... this is a picture book!

Not fitting in is a popular theme across picture books and middle grade novels. Why fit in when you were born to stand out
This old adage couldn’t be truer than in Iced out.
The seals, narwhal and walrus all attend Miss Blubbers’s School for Arctic Mammals. Wilfred and Neville just don’t fit it. Sports are not their strong suit, they don’t go to parties and actually they don’t even like each other much! Everything changes when new student Betty Beluga arrives. She does her own thing, goes where she wants, plays games with who she wants. A breath of fresh air for Wilfred and Neville.

I love that this book used the Arctic animals, in place of tigers, elephants, giraffes who we might normally find in a children’s picture book.
There is so much diversity in the Arctic world, from the weird and wonderful narwhal to the pristinely white beluga. Diversity and being who you are is such a powerful message for children to hear and I will champion this book in my schools, especially in the Autumn term when this message needs to be reiterated.

A perfect amount of text make this book easy to read and enjoy and the bold use of colours make it lovely to look through.

An brilliant book!

This book isn't terrible, but it has a couple of problems.

The first is the cover. This is a story about anthropomorphized arctic mammals who do things like sit in desks, watch TV, and play soccer. But you wouldn't know it from the cover, which just shows a walrus, a narwhal, and a beluga swimming in the sea. People do judge books by covers (despite the saying warning us not to), and I'm afraid the cover of this one doesn't really draw a potential reader in.

The second problem is that there doesn't seem to be a very good message. According to the synopsis, the book is about being different and fitting in. The issue I have is that none of that is really resolved, except as a result of Betty Beluga's presence. Before she arrives, Wilfred and Neville (walrus and narwhal, respectively) are social pariahs. Wilfred smells bad and Neville keeps destroying soccer balls with his pointy tooth. When Betty shows up, all the kids want to be her friend. They invite her to parties and just generally fall all over themselves to try to be her BFF. Wilfred and Neville are no different. Betty eventually becomes their friend because of a shared interest... and, suddenly, Wilfred and Neville are accepted by the rest of their classmates! What changed? Nothing... except that they're now "cool" because of their proximity to Betty. I'm not sure that's a healthy message.

The illustrations are really rough, with a limited colour palette. But they're also kind of amusing. I'm not blown away by them, but they work well enough for the story.

Still, the story isn't that strong, and I'd be hesitant to recommend this one due to the message (which seems to be "befriend a popular kid and all your social issues will be resolved"). This had the potential to be a fun little story, but I think it kind of missed the mark.

This children's picture book follows the classic theme of misfits finding their way. Neville and Wilfred are different than all the others in their class and have a hard time fitting in, until a new girl joins their class and shows them it is cool to follow their own path in life.

Positives: All of the mishaps of Neville and Wilfred are charmingly funny, and the illustrations are interesting and add to the text. I always love a story that helps children learn to love themselves despite differences.

Concerns: Although I read this books several times, I felt a little lost, perhaps rushed, when Neville swam up to Betty wanting to prove himself to her. Why was Neville livid? And all of a sudden they were playing hide and seek? It almost felt as if a page (or two) was missing, which was detrimental to the flow of the book. It is possible there was something wrong with the Kindle version I read on my iPad, but I was certainly confused.

I chose not to feature this book review on my blog, but I did submit a this review to Goodreads.