Children's Book Review: Noodles & Albie

Noodles and Albie by Eric Bennett, January 1, 2014. 32 pages. Published by Small Batch Books. Source: author.

A penguin tale of friendship and coming of age. It's the story of a young penguin named Noodles on his first (very memorable) adventure at sea in the mysterious Southern Ocean. When his fun takes a turn and Noodles discovers he is lost, he tries to find his way home before darkness sets in, meeting an interesting cast of characters along the way. Noodles has nearly given up when he meets a friendly fish named Albie who knows the sea "like the back of my fin." They begin the journey together. But will they make it home to the penguin colony before dark? This charming and imaginative story is set against a backdrop of beautifully intricate watercolor illustrations that help bring the story to life.

First Sentence:

After six long months of daylight, the sun was finally beginning to set on the Antarctic summer, and Noodles had not yet attempted his first swim.

While I don't generally review picture books here on the blog, I couldn't say no when the author asked (last year) if I would read and feature his book Noodles & Albie. There's was just something about the artwork on the cover and his pitch via email that intrigued me and made me say "yes" where I normally would have said "no".

This won't be a super long review because it is such a short book. But here we go!!

I am most happy to say that the interior art work is every bit as nice as the cover. This may be the first book, or at least the first one in a long time, that had watercolor illustrations. The illustrations were not only nicely done but complemented the story so well; it was definitely nice to see how well they went with the story. Liz Bannish, definitely did a great job of capturing Eric Bennett's wonderful story.

Noodles & Albie is such a sweet read! I really enjoyed this one because Noodles and Albie were such wonderful characters. That, and I really liked how the author was able to convey the friendship and growth of Noodles in such a short span of time. The story just flowed so well.

Okay, so, I have no more thoughts on Noodles & Albie... though, I did pass the book off to my sister who babysits, and, her charge (a four year old) really enjoyed this one.

Final Verdict: Noodles & Albie- Beautiful story and great illustrations make this a wonderful children's book.

Noodles & Albie earns

This book was received in consideration for a review from the author. All thoughts are my own.