Unplugged

Blip is a wide-eyed, square-headed robot who is plugged into her computer 24/7. The large screen gives her everything she needs: "Blip learned new things, played fun games, danced to music, and visited faraway places," writes Antony (Thank You, Mr. Panda), showing the cheery robot standing on her head as she watches a pixelated workout video, singing along with a pixelated duck, and admiring a pixelated landscape. Then the power goes out, and Blip tumbles down the stairs and into the analog world. It's a revelation. Before the blackout, Blip lived in a flat world rendered in graphite gray; outside, the world is full of shapes and colors--there's nothing flat or pixelated about it. A rabbit, a fawn, and a duck welcome Blip into their circle, and she discovers that everything she did on the computer is much more fun in real life with real friends. Antony's digital-age parable avoids turning heavy-handed--his characters are so cheery, carefree, and congenial that readers will quickly forget that they're being taught a lesson. Ages 3- 5. (Feb.)

PreS-Gr 1--Through soft, black-and-white graphite-accented illustrations, readers are introduced to Blip, a small robot, who likes being plugged into her computer. Blip spends all day learning new things, playing games, listening to music, and visiting faraway places online. Until one day when Blip trips over her wire and tumbles all the way downstairs and out the front door. Suddenly, the pages change to warm, full-color spreads, and Blip topples, rolls, and drifts across grassy hills, forests, and a long, winding river. Outside, Blip also spends her day learning new things, playing games, dancing to music, and visiting faraway places with cozy, new woodland friends. However, the inviting pencil drawings with digitally added colors and textures capture the magic, innocence, and joy of outside play, and contrast highly with the black-and-white computer-play pages. When Blip finally gets back home to her computer, she can't stop thinking about "how great it was...to be...unplugged." VERDICT A visually entertaining story with an underlying message to get outside and play. Perfect for reading aloud and for good old-fashioned one-on-one sharing.--Brianne Colombo, Fairfield Free Public Library, NJ