BLUE CHAMELEON

A lonely chameleon pines for a pal. Blue in mood and hue, with slumped posture and anxious eyes, this protagonist is really sad. Each creamy white spread features the chameleon and one potential companion, such as “Pink cockatoo” or “Swirly snail.” The eager lizard greets each one while beautifully, arrestingly adopting their color patterns and shape. A chameleon claw becomes snail antennae on one page, cowboy-boot spurs on the next. Readers understand why a brown boot and yellow banana don’t respond to overtures, but live creatures seem intimidated—a grasshopper springs away off the page’s edge and a fish looks decidedly nonplussed. Finally so forlorn that even flopping onto a gray rock and becoming gray doesn’t convey it, the chameleon melts into the page. Here Gravett’s gorgeous colored-pencil lines vanish, and her roughly textured paper offers the challenge of tipping the page to find an angle at which the chameleon’s outline—now in white on white, like shiny dry glue—is visible. Luckily a small “Hello?” peeps from the following page, where a colorfully festive ending awaits. Both chameleons and friendship populate children's picture books liberally, but this one's well worth adding to the shelf. (Picture book. 2-5)