When a new boy takes some ribbing, it is Brian who leaves an illustrated note to make him feel better. As he draws, Brian imagines amazing stories, including a poignant one about a superhero with the power to make friends. Tender illustrations rendered in glowing hues capture Brian’s isolation deftly compared to the others and his surroundings, he appears in black and white. The school scenarios are uncomfortably familiar: High-maintenance children get the teacher’s attention team captains choose kickball players by popularity and athletic ability chatter about birthday parties indicates they are not inclusive events.
Readers first see him alone on the front endpapers, drawing in chalk on the ground. This endearing picture book about a timid boy who longs to belong has an agenda but delivers its message with great sensitivity.īrian wants to join in but is overlooked, even ostracized, by his classmates. And the reliance on fatness and disability stereotypes (one Camp Cruel counselor has two hooks and an eyepatch) further sucks the fun out of the enterprise. The bright artwork and the design-combining illustrated pages and comic-book panels-will appeal to kids, but the humor’s not strong enough to elevate characters or concept in unanimated form.
To get their colors back, they must all work together. The contests-tug of war, arm wrestling, and dodgeball-between blue Camp Cool and red Camp Cruel are interrupted by another villain, the color-stealing gray (literally) Grace Cale. Instead of offering up a parallel for Ella, the traits of rotund, food-obsessed Robby are split between two villains who are both just as pathetic as he is. The capstone activity of the summer is a color war against the Cruel School Camp, where instead of traditional activities they practice “drilling holes in one another’s canoes and making fun of small woodland creatures.” A second character rundown reveals that these campers are mostly evil versions of the heroes, especially Ray Blank, Drew’s evil twin, who has a magic eraser to counter the pen. While the text reads with the evident presumption that readers are familiar with the show, early pages also give a rundown of characters and names (along with Drew, the protagonists are all white with the exception of a lone black character, Ella). As it’s summer, instead of Cool School he’s attending Camp Cool School.
#THEMES FOR COLOR WAR SERIES#
A YouTube cartoon launches a chapter-book series with a story about rival summer camps.Īnything superhero kid Drew Pendous draws with his Pen Ultimate magically becomes real.
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