
Member Reviews

Designed with a lot of smarts and craft, this is one of those books where a child finds merit in their differences. Our heroine can certainly swim – she must have been on the synchronised team – but at the same time she cannot, as the pool is crowded out with galumphing kids doing their own thing and swamping her style. So she finds her own swamp – literally, as she exits the pool by a plughole in the base, and eventually ends up crying her heart out in the boondocks and forming a pool of her own in the swamp-like environment she finds herself.
There is a heck of a lot of brilliantly done design work here, that is most memorable and effective. The text, too, is a quiet, poetic piece of a gentle kind of frankness, showing us the girl's thoughts and story but without the typical overtness of books for this age. So even while I didn't quite love it, I can certainly see this was done with uncommon quality. The moral of not feeling alone for feeling freaky – because we all feel it, isolated and wrong and awkward – is really well done. I think for personal taste this is a four stars, but the merits of the craft shown here nudge me much higher than that in my estimation of this scintillating piece.

Unnaturally Blue - 3,25/5 - lecture en anglais
Pour tous les francophones, le style de dessin des personnages m'a énormément rappelée le dessin animé Angela Anaconda... Vous voyez ce que je veux dire ? Cette sensation de malaise avec les dessins assez creepy... Le ressenti est resté tout du long, en plus avec mon dégoût des piscines publiques... Ça allait bien ensemble.
"You can't cry in the pool.
It's already blue."
As a kid I was terrified of pools, I picked the book to challenge myself and I got curious about the title, the drawing and the message that the book could send to the reader.
Our protagonist is a talented young swimmer. But today she feels blue. She feels like she can't add not even a single drop of water into the pool.
The style is so mesmerizing in a weird way and captures the readers attention easily. It's mysterious and there definitely is a feeling of uneasiness...
The story got quite surprising and sends us into unexpected places. With its creepy style.
"A journey so dark, under all that was under... Until it spit me out."
I picked up some quotes that I loved. Some phrases were quite poetic. It's what I enjoyed the most in this picture book.
"Nothing is louder than the night"
I didn't get why her blue was unnatural. Was it because her tears are considered unnatural ? Not supposed to be shown ? She should have known she had the right to cry, to be sad or down... I am not sure my interpretation is aligned with the authors but here is mine : our young swimmer used her imagination to get through that down-feeling moment. She used her imagination to transform what was around her and make things more fun, bareable, to play, and bring back a smile to her face.
"More true than blue.
Afloat but still under.
Alone, in bloom."
Quite relatable.

This book is beautifully illustrated but I’m not sure it would circulate well with children. I do suspect upper elementary students would like it as a read aloud as it has a lot to discuss about it.

I received an ARC through NetGalley for an honest review.
Since joining NetGalley, I've read a fair few children's books now and I continue to be blown away by the quality of them.
Unnaturally Blue takes that to smother level with some of the most beautiful and sophisticated art and writing that is incredibly poetic and lyrical.
I am absolutely spellbound!

This book has a lot of deep meaning. I do not think it would resonate with lower elementary. Probably best suited for middle grade.

I want to give Unnaturally Blue more than three stars in a review. There's so much to love in this book, especially the illustrations, which are beautiful and detailed. As a library employee, I struggled with it because I think its circulation potential is limited by its story line. It feels as though the author designed the illustrations first and then worked backward to create a story that would feature those illustrations. The end product is a story that is gloomy and distanced in a way that reads like the main character is struggling with severe depression. But if that's the case, the rest of the story (such as drawing other children into the detailed imaginative alternate world) just doesn't function for me. Severe depression is severely limited in ability to draw others in.
Overall, I feel like the story needs more work to become a book that will circulate well/sell well. It's gloomy, but gloomy without direction and purpose, and parents tend not to pick books like that to read with their children.

The best thing I can say about this book is, I’m not sure I understand it. Our character in her buttercream yellow swimsuit knows the world is blue. She’s depressed and crying and her tears won’t stop until she sweeps herself down the drain of the pool. She comes back from either the other side or a world of make believe. I’m not quite sure. There are so many different things this could be. This could be a child’s depression and trying to find the light. It could be suicidal thoughts and children, which I really hope it’s not. Wow I’m not the biggest fan of the words in the book because I’m not sure I understand them. I will say the artwork is top-notch and beautiful.

This book took me on an unexpected plunge, mirroring the protagonist's own dive into the depths of a seemingly ordinary swimming pool.
Our young protagonist, a swimmer, once felt at home in the pool, but now feels overwhelmed by its crowdedness. The feeling of claustrophobia leads her to envision a drastic escape: swimming to the deepest part and unplugging the drain. This act transports her to a murky, swamp-like world, reminiscent of a science fiction landscape, where she confronts and embraces all facets of herself. The author uses the crowded pool as a metaphor for the character's internal struggles, leading to a vivid, surreal escape into a science-fiction-esque swamp. In a particularly poignant moment, the swimmer even terraforms the swamp with her own tears, adding a layer of tragic depth to the story. Emerging transformed, her newfound confidence and cheer inspire others at the pool's surface.
This journey of self-discovery, while visually striking in its description, left me somewhat disoriented as to its connection with the initial setting. This book is a bold experiment in blending realism with fantastical elements, leaving the reader to ponder the precise nature of the transformation. While the narrative's surreal elements might have left me somewhat disoriented, I recognize that its unique approach may resonate deeply with other readers through their lived experiences. I applaud the author for their bold attempt at such a uniquely narrated book.

A beautifully illustrated book, this story tells of a sad little girl who imagines a different life. The imagery in the book is profound. This is a deep book for a child, but it is certainly meaningful and full of feeling.

It takes a little too long for the story to progress to the point where we realize the girl isn't depressed and acting on those impulses and instead just wants to play.

Unnaturally Blue hits deep in the feels with such a sad start for someone so blue internally, even bluer than the water she swims in with all of the people who could turn her day around if she'd just let them in and play a game. But soon, she finds a place in the water, deeper than the pool she's swimming in with lots of joyful bodies and finds some peace to remind her that she's stronger than she believes. When she imagines herself to be a sea creature, she emerges into the pool she started swimming in and imagines all of the swimmers as critters of the blue. They all have a joyful time when her mindset turns around. The illustrations were great, conveying the depth of her sadness to emerging happy-for-now. I enjoyed the various water dwellers that in real life I'd never like to encounter.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley for providing the e-ARC for me to read. This book is about a girl who feels like she won't fit in. A journey to the unnatural place, deep under the pool in finding herself.
As an adult reader, I find this book very interesting. I spent hours admiring the illustration only!! It gives sureal feeling, somehow makes me a bit uneasy in the middle part of the book. Honestly speaking, the illustration makes it almost like a horror read for younger reader (in my opinion), probably because of the art style and the coloring (a bit too gloomy, I guess). But the proses are poetic, almost like nursery rhymes but make it for older children.