Blue, Barry & Pancakes: Beach Ball Bedlam – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: friendship, possessions, adventure, priorities, comic.
Children’s book title: Beach Ball Bedlam.
Children’s authors: Dan Abdo and Jason Patterson.
Genre: Children’s fiction.
Published by: Rock the Boat.
ISBN: 9780861549047.
Recommended for children aged: 5-8 year-olds.
First published: Paperback November 2024.
This children’s book is ideal for: reluctant readers as there are only a few words per page. To begin discussions about friendship and what is important in life.
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Our review:
Blue is a worm, Barry is a frog, and Pancakes is a very large yellow rabbit! On a day out to the beach, Blue takes his special beach ball under a cloche, just to admire it. However, Barry and Pancakes want to play with it, much to Blue’s dismay. When the ball is eaten by a whale—trust me, this isn’t the strangest thing that happens—the trio hatch a plan to retrieve it.
After a series of adventures, Blue finally gets his ball back, but there’s no sign of Barry or Pancakes. He soon realises that possessions are nice, but not at the expense of friendship. When they are reunited, Blue has no problem sharing and ends up having a fantastic time.
Our verdict:
Blue, Barry & Pancakes: Beach Ball Bedlam is the perfect book for younger reluctant readers. As a graphic novel, most pages feature just one illustration and very few words, yet it delivers a strong and engaging story with a meaningful message. It’s colourful, with friendly and relatable artwork that young readers could easily try to replicate with positive results.
Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:
- As part of a cross-curricular activity with art, discuss why a graphic novel is a fun and engaging way to read and explore how you would go about creating your own.
- If you had to write about three friends similar to the main protagonists in this story, which animals would you choose and why?
- What talents would you give your original characters?
- What changes would you need to make for the animals in your story to live in a similar way to Blue, Barry, and Pancakes?
Many thanks to Rock The Boat for the review copy.
To order a class set of this book, please click below to order via uk.bookshop.org, an organisation that supports local bookshops, or Amazon.co.uk.
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