The Colour Thief
Written and Illustrated by
Gabriel Alborozo
Published by Bloomsbury Publishing
Moving from political cartoonist to children's book author is no mean feat but Gabriel Alborozo has managed it with aplomb. You'll probably recall how we raved about Alborozo's superb "The Acrobat". Switching publishers to Bloomsbury, Alborozo has come up with a fabulous tale about colour - or rather, at the beginning of the story, a lack of it. A little alien lives on a grey world full of grey folk. The buildings are grey, the grass is grey, the trees and animals are all a zillion shades of grey. There's no colour to be found anywhere but one day the alien spies a greeny-blue planet through his space telescope and decides to investigate.
The alien lands on earth, and marvels to the wondrous colours that can be found everywhere. With a sneaky sideways glance, the alien comes up with a plan - Drain all the colours from everything and take them back home to his own planet.
The alien sets about his dastardly deed, sucking the green from the grass and trees, the yellow from flowers and even the colour from a little child's balloon before whizzing off in his flying saucer back home.
But he casts a look back at what he's done. Turned the earth into the same cold barren grey landscape of his own planet. Surely there must be a way to undo his dreadful deed and put things back to normal?
We won't reveal how the story plays out but this is that rare thing, a truly original children's book that warms the cockles of your heart as well as telling a moral tale.
Alborozo's talent both with writing and illustration really sings out from ever colourful (and not so colourful) page. This book has been demanded again and again by Charlotte and if there's a better recommendation than that, I've yet to see it.
Charlotte's best bit: The alien's "Sneaky I've got a plan" face and she was also rather sweet on the little boy in the book and very sad about what happened to his balloon!
Daddy's Favourite bit: Like Alborozo's other children's books, a truly stunning and original book with a sweet and sublime message at its heart. Truly lovely!
(Kindly sent to us for review by Bloomsbury Publishing)