This was such a sweet and adorable tale about how we all shine when surrounded by friends and people we love. My family is bonkers for cephalopods so I was very excited for us to read this together. The overreaching theme of the book was a great lesson, told in a simple but lovely way, and the illustrations were so bright, fun and colourful. A fun read all round.

The Glow Show
By sushi Schaefer

Review ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A short story about sea creatures who are adorable by the way in the Illustrations as well as their interactions with one another.

This is a children’s book that encourages and demonstrates the value of including others sharing the spotlight as well as the world as much less scary when you are surrounded with those who care about you and not all alone.

I gave this book four stars As towards the end some of the pages had quite a bit more wording on them than the previous pages did therefore not really consistently following with the reading level that the book initially started with.

Overall this is a great and positive story that many children will be able to resonate and take away points towards social structure from.

Thank you net galley in the author for my a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review

Cute!!! I really liked the emphasis on friendship in this story. It's easy for kids to understand without. being "preachy"

This is such a cute concept and I love the focus on a more obscure animal. I enjoyed learning about bioluminescence and the concept of friend verses fan.

I found the message a but jumbled. It felt to me that the message was more about what you can get from people which may be the intent which simply doesn’t jive with my parenting style.

Overall, I would purchase a copy for my kids but I don’t think it would end up in my heavy rotation without a bit clearer message.

Story of a squid that glows, he performs for his fans until he gets lost and the squid wishes they were with their friends. Ultimately learning the lesson friends are better than fans. The book finishes with some facts too making it also an educational read.

An adorable tale blending science and powerful social emotional lessons about friendship.

Glow is a bioluminescent squid who loves to dance and glow. He loves to show off his skills...and becomes quite a show-off with a bad attitude. He would rather have all the attention on him. He heads off to find someone who will let him hog the spotlight. But when he gets lost, he also loses his glow! Can Glow find his way home—and if he does, will his friends forgive him?

Great illustrations and facts about bioluminescence accompany this story about being humble and appreciating all of our friends equally. We can have special gifts and talents but it is not a good quality of a friend to brag about it in a way that hurts others or puts them down.

This book is short and simple, perfect for early readers, but can be used at a higher level to open a discussion about how to be a supportive friend and how to talk to our friends when they are behaving in unpleasant ways. This story was both entertaining and educational, which can be a tricky balance to maintain in a children’s book, and I will be suggesting it to teachers whenever possible. Incorporating topics such as this into children's picture books is a tried and true way to teach important life skills in a way that is fun. This would be an amazing addition for classrooms, libraries, counselling offices and more.

In this adorable little book, Glow the squid enjoys impressing everyone with his bioluminescence. But he soon finds that having friends is better than impressing people.

The Glow Show, by Susie Schaefer, has fantastic, cute, colorful pictures. There are very few words per page, usually with a sentence description and some speech bubbles. I would say it’s appropriate to be read to kids with short attention spans for wordy books, as well as those that enjoy cute pictures. It’s also a good book for kids learning to read.

4*

The Glow Show is about a squid named Glow who seems to only care about the attention he gets for his bioluminescence. His friends want to learn from him, but Glow ignores them. When Glow finds himself in (literal) unfamiliar waters - he ends up realized friends are a lot more important than he thought.

The illustrations in this picture books are lovely and colorful. I can see children being attracted to them and the adorable characters. I could see a counselor using this book to teach about friendship. It's short, succinct, and has a clear message.

Beyond that, I don't see my own children wanted to reread this or going back to it on the shelf to look at the pictures. It needs a little something more - but I can't quite put my finger on it.

This book was really cute was a great moral lesson behind it! My daughter loved the bright colored fish and we both enjoyed the story. We've read it a few times now.

This was such a sweet story that would be the lovely addition to any young child’s library. The art style is gorgeous and interesting and the characters design is adorable.
There was a lovely message about the importance of true friendships over popularity and I’m sure many children would benefit from hearing that.
I enjoyed this book and as someone who works with young children I could definitely see this in our classroom book collection.

The Glow Show is the story about Glow, a squid who loves to...glow! Overall it is a cute story about the importance of friendship and sharing your light with others. I especially enjoyed the artwork and the fun facts presented in the end. Its always great too see an author go that extra mile to teach their readers a little more, but do so in an enjoyable way.

The only criticism I have is a few pages seem a little repetitive. While repetition is common in kid lit, I personally don't feel like it flowed as well as it could have. However I am not an author and can respect that my vision may simply be different than others. Thank you to the publisher, author, and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review this new picture book.

I feel a bit disappointed by this one. It had high potential and I expected more. It's supposed to be about knowing how to share the spotlight, but I didn't clearly get that message. I don't think kids would easily get that message either. The squid's "friends" who wanted to play with him just ignored them until he needed their help. I guess he learned his lesson, but it wasn't explained in any capacity. I found the dialogue lacking and repetitive.

The illustrations in this book were great and really brought the story to life. Ultimately, however, I don’t think this book really gets across the lesson that is trying to be taught. The theme is unclear and although it can be inferred and students can be guided there, it would be a challenge to make those connections.

Thank you for the Netgalley.

Starting off with my favorites: The art of this book is beautiful, it draws you in and is what keeps you interested in the book. The moral of the story is great, to share the spotlight and to help elevate your friends. However, i feel like the execution of the writing isn['t there. I was confused about why Glow is going up to the surface. It besides wanting the be the center of attention i feel like there isn't really given a reason. I had to reread a few times to make sure i wasn't missing anything.
When i read it to my kids (Age 8 & 4) they were also confused asking Why Glow when away without any reason or saying goodbye or conflict.

Overall, This was an okay picture book. Loved the art, but the story left some to be desired.

Glow is a spunky little squid that is bioluminescent. He’s beautiful to watch and he knows it! His talents have gone to his head. He abandons his friends in search of fans and in the process loses what he likes most about himself. Now he’s got to find his way back to where he truly belongs.

This is a cute book about the value of friendship versus the cost of popularity. It also teaches kids about the oceans. The illustrations are vibrant and eye-catching. This will grab the early reader’s attention! My preschooler really enjoyed it.

This book was really cute. It kind of reminded me of finding nemo in the best way. The format got a little wonky on my ipad, but I was still able to get the whole gist.

I'm always trying to find books that work well in speech therapy. Not all books are therapeutic and it's sometimes frustrating because I'm reading so many children's books and it's a lot of effort in my already packed work schedule. This books fits the bill so I got excited. Thanks again!

Absolutely loved this sweet story. It shared a good lesson and was informative about bioluminescence. Additionally, the illustrations were captivating.

A fun story about the difference between followers and friends. This seems like an important message in these social media driven times. I appreciated the different facts about sea creatures at the end of the book.

I read this to my 5 year old daughter and we both love the illustrations. We also love that Glow is a squid – because my daughter loves sea creatures. The blurb says the story is about sharing the limelight and I’m not sure if that message got through to my daughter. For me I thought it was about a book about Glow trying to distinguish fans from friends ~ because it definitely can relate in this social media world we live in.

In the back of the book there is information about squid and definitions about fans and friends. I did enjoy all the other information we got about squid and bioluminescence. Overall this was a cute book!

I loved the idea for this story and the artwork was great, however I found the storyline a little disjointed. I'm actually not sure if the e-book I reviewed was missing some pages as it didn't make sense in the beginning. It seemed like more back story was needed to understand what was going on. Great idea, but execution could use some improvement.