This is the story of a boy (actually a rabbit) named Corey who wears an orange cape to school every day and is subject to bullying by Billy (a dog) who thinks the cape is weird. Each day, Corey wears a new cape, and each day Billy takes it, just as he did the first day. One day a curious boy (a raccoon) asks Corey about the cape, and Corey tells him he wears it as a show of support for his sick mother. From that point on, the curious boy and all Corey's other school mates wear capes and other items of clothing to support him, and Billy learns a lesson about being the odd one out.
After reading Ciccio's A Beary Rainy Day, I have to admit I was hoping for a little more. I liked the art and the general anti-bullying, pro empathy/friendship idea of the story. It’s a solid idea, it just needed fleshing out a bit. The story felt too generic, with nothing that made it stand out from all the other books with similar messages. I was also put off by the story referring to the characters as ‘boy’, when they were clearly animals. If you say ‘boy’, I’m expecting a human child. I think developing the story a little more would have helped, instead of going from “Corey’s weird” one day, to “everyone’s dressed like Corey and supportive of him” the next. I work with young children. They don’t have that kind of sudden turn-around. They have to be taught to build empathy towards peers. It’s a process … not an event.
It’s a book with good potential. I just think it could use a little tweaking to the story.
★★★
#ClavisPublishing #NetGalley
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