Barnaby Unboxed!

Barnaby Unboxed! is an adorable creative picture book for young readers by the Fan Brothers. Released 3rd Sept 2024 by Penguin Random House on their Tundra imprint, it's 80 pages and is available hardcover and ebook formats. Its assigned Lexile measure is 600 and it's aimed mostly at children aged 5-9 (but appealing and moving for all ages). 

This is a beautifully illustrated adventure story about Barnaby, an elephant mouse hybrid "perfect pet". He has a pampered life with his little girl, with walks and treats and TV and story times. That all changes when he feels unloved and runs away, winding up with more danger than he planned on. 

There are some valuable themes of found family, what home means, self-worth and finding (and appreciating) what we have. It's a profound little book, and told in age appropriate language, all accompanied by luminous impressionist inspired artwork throughout. 

Beautiful book. The illustrations are deftly rendered and, as said, just luminous. 

Four and a half stars. This would be an excellent choice for public, school, or classroom library acquisition, for the home library, or for gift giving. 

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.