Blurp's Book of Manners

by Cindy Derby, Cindy Derby (Illustrator)

Overview

From Caldecott Honoree Cindy Derby comes an uproarious tale about an etiquette coach and the sentient paint blob that just might teach her proper manners.

When etiquette coach Ms. Picklepop teeters off her stool and spills a bucket of paint, a creature emerges. Not a scary one, or an evil one, or anything of the sort. Instead, what comes alive is ...

BLURP!

She'll have to carry on with her lesson, despite Blurp's many, messy distractions. But paint splotches and burps aren't all that disrupt Ms. Picklepop's decorous class. Perhaps through an unlikely friendship, Ms. Picklepop will learn a thing or two about manners herself.

Fall in love with Cindy Derby's newest adorable creation - Blurp - in this colorful, heartwarming, and laugh-out-loud funny tale.

*"Derby’s natural inclination to play with paint like a child in a mud puddle comes fully to her aid here...
Our hero is bound to find fast friends with ill-mannered readers everywhere." - Kirkus, starred review

*"Derby breathes fresh air into familiar comedy tropes and 'practice kindness' messaging, while anchoring the book’s unleashed sense of color and character in a core truth: there is nothing more wonderful than being treated with respect." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250810359
Publisher:	Roaring Brook Press
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Pages:	48
Product dimensions:	9.45(w) x 11.30(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	AD610L (what's this?)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Cindy Derby is a 2021 Caldecott Honoree and an illustrator and author based out of San Francisco, California. Blurp's Book of Manners is her third picture book with Roaring Brook, following How to Walk an Ant and Two Many Birds. She is a puppeteer and has performed all over the world.

Editorial Reviews

★ 10/17/2022

As this picture book kicks off, Elizabeth Picklepop IV, a teal-skinned, exorbitantly spectacled doyenne of manners, begins to school readers in the key rules of etiquette. “I will be watching each and every one of you VERY closely. So pay attention,” she says, the saucer-like lens of her glasses emitting a bright white glare. But her steely gentility slowly crumbles after she spills a bottle of blue ink, and the resulting stain immediately comes to life. With eager, googly eyes and single-tooth smile, Blurp belches exuberantly, spewing color everywhere and gazing at Ms. Picklepop with an acolyte’s devotion. Digitally collaged, panel-framed vignettes chronicle Ms. Picklepop’s subsequent attempts to continue her lesson while ignoring Blurp, who changes hues by consuming more pots of ink, eats a snooty cat (later regurgitated), turns itself into a whoopie cushion, and burps in multiple colors. “ENOUGH!!! You are RUINING everything!!!” Ms. Picklepop finally shouts, before realizing that she has violated etiquette’s cardinal rule: consideration of others. Derby (How to Have a Birthday) breathes fresh air into familiar comedy tropes and “practice kindness” messaging, while anchoring the book’s unleashed sense of color and character in a core truth: there is nothing more wonderful than being treated with respect. Ages 3–6. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

*A CBC Teacher Favorites Award Selection!*

*A Librarian Favorites Award Selection!*

★ "Derby’s natural inclination to play with paint like a child in a mud puddle comes fully to her aid here...
Our hero is bound to find fast friends with ill-mannered readers everywhere." - Kirkus, starred review

★ "Derby breathes fresh air into familiar comedy tropes and 'practice kindness' messaging, while anchoring the book’s unleashed sense of color and character in a core truth: there is nothing more wonderful than being treated with respect." - Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Entirely and wonderfully original. Derby’s paint-and-photo-collage spreads are somehow both opulent and delightfully gross." - Booklist

"A feast of visual humor. This crowd-pleaser is sure to be enthusiastically if not politely received." - Horn Book Magazine

From the Publisher

01/01/2023

Gr 1–4—Bespectacled Ms. Picklepop has several lessons on manners to impart to readers, a stand-in for her student. Soon after she begins her first lesson on "How to properly introduce yourself," however, a strange blue blob enters the picture and interrupts the lesson. She interacts with readers to ignore the interruption, but the blob is soon revealed to be a creature who can't help but disrupt every lesson with a loud sound and messy splashes of color. The creature, whose name is Mr. Blurp, is mostly noisy and causes a huge mess; however, its behavior ranges from troublesome, knocking Ms. Picklepop down, to perhaps frightening, when it eats a neighbor's pet. Human and creature eventually get along; after all Ms. Picklepop's final lesson is to "Be considerate." The illustrations, a combination of collaged photographs, colorful drawings, and "splattering ink and watercolor from across the room" (according to the publisher's information) miss the mark and tend to distract from, rather than enhance the humor in the story. Compounding this is that the book runs long. Humans are depicted with blue or green skin. VERDICT Though kids may giggle at the silly dialogue and potty humor, the story never quite comes together.—Sue Morgan

School Library Journal

★ 2022-09-28
What are manners without kindness? Or, for that matter, fart jokes?

Meet Ms. Elizabeth Picklepop IV. You are delighted to make her acquaintance. After taking her course on manners, readers will receive a certificate of completion. However, when blue-skinned Ms. Picklepop happens to drop an errant paint can, it results in an overly enthusiastic blue blot with eyes that becomes sentient. Every lesson Ms. Picklepop attempts to convey has the unfortunate consequence of attracting the attention of the creature, named Blurp (changing colors with every paint can they chug en route). Though well-intentioned and good-natured, Blurp causes massive paint-splotch–riddled chaos wherever they go, until finally Picklepop can take it no longer and becomes significantly less than well-mannered. Will she see the error of her ways? Derby’s natural inclination to play with paint like a child in a mud puddle comes fully to her aid here. Picklepop’s world is all hedgerows and elegant teas. The sheer, wild exuberance of Blurp comes, then, as a cathartic corrective. The great irony of the tale, of course, is that at the same time that Blurp is instigating a visual cacophony of colors, their manners are impeccable, if riddled with B’s (upon introducing themselves, Blurp says, “Bits bice boo beet boo”). (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Emily Post might raise an eyebrow, but our hero is bound to find fast friends with ill-mannered readers everywhere. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews