Not Stanley, nor Suzie, not even Betsy Joe. Simply....Bob by Simon Beck

Hi there!

Welcome back to the Saturday edition of Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers....where you can always count on the reading being fresh and the genres being varied; variety IS the spice of life after all.

Yesterday, we stepped into the Fiction field with a Women's Lit title that debuted over the pond originally but finally made its way to our shores.  Today, we're swimming back over the pond to feature another UK author that specializes in Children's Picture Books, both the writing and the illustrating.  Ambitious?  Maybe.  Worth checking out? Definitely!  Let's jump right in, shall we?  Today's book of choice is...

Bob

by

Simon Beck

Short title for an equally short story but full of sweet quirkiness and an obvious desire to have one little goldfish truly live out loud.

Meet Bob.  That's him.  Right there on the cover.  Cute, right?  Totally.  For such a basic illustration, he's pretty expressive too.  Lots of eye rolling and bubble "thoughts" but it just goes to show you that unending babble does not make a lead character endearing.  It's how much you feel for them, or in the case of picture books how much you feel a part of the story and trust me, you and the little ones in your life will be joining right along on this adventure.

This particular book serves as the official "meet and greet" with Bob before we check out the rest of his stories.  Here, we join his young ownere on a quest to provide Bob with the BEST living environment possible because hey, if you were in the same locale 24/7, you'd want something to look at, swim through, or entertain yourself with too!  We start with actual living quarters, travel the globe to Russia and finally settle somewhere around home with the help of dear old Mom, but through it all we discover what a great pal we have in Bob and how close we've become in such a short time.

Final thoughts....Bubble bubble BUBBLE bUbBlE!  Oh, sorry, I was speaking to Bob.  *ahem*  Highly recommended for the little ones as well as the childlike wonder in you.  There's really no age limit on Picture Books as long as you can appreciate beauty/fun in imagery and still have use of your imagination.  I know I do, how about you?  From this adventure we have titles that lead us to explore Bob's life during the holidays, Bob getting active, Bob making friends and Bob on vacation.  Who knew a little goldfish got around so much?  (^_^)  Suffice it to say that if you fall in love with Bob (as I surely have), there's lots of fun available in your reading future.

Review copy courtesy of author Simon Beck.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title as well as his growing number of works, be sure to stop by his official site, check out his 'About Me' page, or like him on Facebook.  To pick up a copy of Bob to call your own (or any of this other titles), stop by Lulu.com where they are currently available exclusively but can be shipped worldwide.

Oh, one last thing!  If you haven't had enough of Bob or simply want to experience it in an interactive way until your copy wings its way to you, check out "Bob: The Motion Picture" .  Two words...too cute.

Until next time....happy reading!