The Bling Bling Bird by Linda M. Gentry
Published: Knowledge Power Books, 2018
Buy on Amazon
GoodReads
The Bling Bling bird finds a shiny necklace, but her obsession with her appearance turns off her friends and attracts predators.
The Bling Bling Bird has an interesting point of view–how much bling is too much, and can it get you killed? Generally, suggesting that one should not be too ostentatious isn’t a bad thing. Obsessing over your appearance rarely leads to good places. Is it dangerous? Sometimes, possibly. Picture books can work too hard to push a message and I don’t mind rolling with a lighter topic now and then.
The art is the weaker aspect of the book, and not for any specific page, but because most of the art is reused. There is really only one pose for the main character, other character poses are limited, and other elements look cut from various sources. Some of the backgrounds are a lower resolution and the vector backgrounds are very similar. The final effect is a little disjointed.
I’m usually critical of rhyming, but the author has a good sense of maintaining rhythm and refrains from rearranging sentence structure to make the rhymes work. The story is pleasant and I enjoyed the raised stakes at the climax. The Bling Bling Bird is a friendly story overall that could have used more refinement in the illustrations.