Review - Shy

Shy
by Deborah Freedman
Date: 2016
Publisher: Viking
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 40
Format: hardcover
Source: library

Shy loves birds. He'd love to watch them fly and hear them sing, but he's only ever read about them in books... until a real bird comes along. He's dying to meet her, but there's just one problem: Shy is, well, shy--so shy, in fact, that he's afraid to leave the gutter of the book. Can Shy overcome his fears and venture out onto the page?

This sweetly relatable picture book from the acclaimed Deborah Freedman speaks to every child who's ever felt like hiding instead of facing the daunting world.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

While this book has pretty pictures, it's very light on story.

Shy is... shy. He mostly just reads books. One day, he sees and hears a bird. Then he follows the bird, and eventually makes friends with it. The end. (No, really. That's about all there is to it.)

The illustrations are soft and colourful and quite nice to look at, but I was kind of distracted by not knowing who Shy was for most of the book. A person? An animal? We don't find out until closer to the end. And then we're left with questions like "How does a giraffe learn to read?" and "Why is he so obsessed with birds?"

Because of the secret identity of Shy being revealed, this book will only be surprising on the first read, and there's not much else about it that would make readers want to open it up again. I'd recommend getting this one from the library if you want to read it... because I can't really see it being a favourite on repeat.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.67 out of 5