‘Itty Bitty Betty Blob’ by Constance Lombardo with illustrations by Micah Player is a picture book with unusual character and a message of kindness and self-acceptance.

A young monster named Betty has trouble conforming to the stereotypical images of the fearsome creatures around her. While they lean towards terror and dark colors, Betty likes dancing and rainbows and bright colors. When picture day comes around, everyone will dress dark and scary, but Betty has other ideas. Will her new look gain acceptance or not?

I like the moral of the story. The illustrations are a lot of fun. I like this one and I think young readers will also.

Artwork: 10/10
Lesson Learned: 10/10
Quirky-cute goth blob living in Halloween-country: 10/10

This illustrator must know me intimately to create something me-coded.

A wonderful story gets told in this book. A small monster tries to prepare for picture day, but finds it hard to be scary. The things they enjoy are not stuff a good monster is supposed to like. When they head to school they make a huge discovery, one that will change them forever. Once this tale comes to a close, this monster has learned a great lesson.

This is a very sweet and short book with adorable art. The book is more of a picture book where we follow a monster, who, try as she might does not look the part of one. She sparkles or shines, giggles or twirls.

It’s on picture day that she has to come to terms with what she looks like amidst the other monsters.

The review obviously cannot be bigger than the book itself, so I’ll just stop with the fact that it is an uplifting story – not new but still very fun to read. I am obviously not the target audience, but even I could appreciate what they were trying to do in the book.

I would definitely recommend it to the younger audience.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Sweet baby lord, this was adorable. I feel like Betty Blob is my soul animal. The illustrations are so eye catching, the story is adorable and everything about this is perfect as a children's book that can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike!

What an adorable story about embracing who you are even if your environment does not fit you. Betty goes to a monster school and doesn’t seem to fit in but girl tries! Picture day is coming up and she practices her scary face as much as she can. One day on her way to school, she discovers how different she is but can embrace it. The illustrations were absolutely adorable and my daughter loved this. It gives the spooky vibes yet includes a colorful tone as well.

This is a great picture book to encourage people to be themselves. I like how the author used picture day to bring this point across, as we all remember “picture day” and the stress behind have the perfect photo. I recommend reading this to those who are afraid to stand out and to those who have picture day approaching.

Itty Bitty Betty Blob is a cute picture book that stars a squishy monster who likes to dress up and be cute. That's not exactly the way things are done in her monster community. With picture day coming up at school Betty must decide whether to be true to herself or go along with what's expected. This is a charming story with imaginanitive art to complement the text.

Cute and.. well. It's fine, is how I can best describe it. Very simple but cute. Would be a good addition to a small child's library BUT I have also read many other children's books that I would rather invest my money in.

" . . . Itty Bitty Betty Blob wanted to be bad, like a good little monster."

But, Itty Bitty Betty Blob (so much fun to say aloud!) just can't help it; she can't stop being so doggoned adorable. And, she's dreading her school's picture day where she'll be expected to grimly grimace and look fierce.

This is one of the cutest books ever about letting your freak flag fly, and being yourself. The story owes a lot to Micah Player's delightful illustrations. I LOVE the contrast between the dark, gloomy world Betty inhabits, and Betty herself who glows a luminous bubblegum pink.

What a simply lovely and wonderful book that kids will ask to read again and again!

In a Nutshell: Oh, so adorable!!! Loved everything about this picture book! Much recommended to every little reader.

Plot Preview:
Itty Bitty Betty Blob is trying her best to be the perfect monster, but unlike the other residents of Ghoulington, she just doesn’t fit in. She loves colours, she loves pretty things, and, horror of horrors, she loves to smile for photographs. Even when she tries her best to be ugly and grumpy like all good little monsters should be, she ends up looking cute. With the dreaded Picture Day coming up soon at school, Betty knows that she needs to practise her grimaces and get her monster act together. Will she be able to *grrrr* her way to a memorable school photo?


Many times, you can just look at a book and feel in your gut that it is going to be a fabulous one. (Yeah, totally judging the book by the cover here!) Often, your gut is also wrong about such anticipations. But in this case, the content of this itty bitty picture book matches the cover perfectly.

The story is an outright winner, not because of any innovative feature in the plot (there have been other stories with similar themes) but because of the approach. Betty is happy to do her own thing, even though she is the only monster in Ghoulington who wanders towards the brighter side of life. She is rarely bothered by what others say, and best of all, she knows that “fierce is not me.” Despite this, Picture Day creates dread in her. It goes to show how even self-aware individuals have their moments of doubt.

Betty is the most outstanding character, and her mother comes a close second, despite her limited role. She is encouraging and supportive as a parent without resorting to pressure, accusations, or emotional blackmail. Loved her!

While I don’t consider a moral as a necessary component of a picture book, the best books do deliver an important message with the plot. In this case, the message is something all children (and adults) ought to follow: follow your heart and do what makes you happy, instead of moulding yourself to fit others’ expectations. At the same time, the story doesn’t cast judgemental comments on the other monsters for being what they are. I appreciate this as well. ‘To each, their own’ is such a good policy for everyone to remember, as long as it doesn’t involve matters of danger or harm.

The story is written in simple text that somehow feels poetic without being outright poetry. The words are strung together beautifully, and often use alliteration, one of my favourite figures of speech for kiddie books. The text has some difficult words, but none that cannot be guessed from context.

The illustrations are fabulous. The monster world, other than Betty, is shaded in dull earth hues, so our bright pink Betty stands out on every page. The Indian in me loves vibrant colours in picture books. To see the vividly radiant Betty against the drab Ghoulington background is aesthetically pleasing. There is another “place” that pops up in the story, and seeing the contrast between the two locations is a viscerally satisfying experience. The text also caters to the colour scheme, with Betty’s speech bubbles in bubblegum pink while all the other characters and the general text have plain black writing.

All in all, this is an outstanding picture book that delivers on plot, message, and illustrations.

Heartily recommended! Itty Bitty Betty Blob will create a monstrous [pun intended!] impact on its itty-bitty readers. The book will work well for ages 4-8.

5 gargantuan stars. (This rating is further endorsed by my not-so-little itty bitty monster who adored the book as much as I did.)

My thanks to Astra Publishing House and NetGalley for the DRC of “Itty Bitty Betty Blob”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This book is seriously adorable.

I absolutely loved the illustrations. The cover was eye-catching.
My son and I liked reading it together, and I'd definitely purchase a copy!

Itty Bitty Betty Blob features the story of one very cute, very pink and very adorable titular character Itty Bitty Betty Blob, who as the first pages states is, “not your typical monster”. In a society of monsters who love all the scary and scowl worthy things, she leans towards the rainbows, colors with an attitude full of peep! Picture Day is quickly approaching and she wants it to be a day where perhaps, she can just be herself. She has tried to be a good little monster alas, she’s not really good at it. Writer Constance Lombardo’s pen moves with grace in creating a story about a young character who wants to be herself and brings along the courage to not fit in but become the best version of herself.

Artist Micah Player’s color scheme throughout the book Bitty’s pink stature standing out in the gloom and doom of the darkened and often colorless landscape helps readers not only locate Betty on every page easily–and also demonstrate just how different the world is with Betty’s influence. The small details like the sprinkle of color like sunshine outside of Betty’s bedroom window, the canvas of her artwork at school help gently guide the book’s narrative to a place of more color and more reasons to embrace it. There’s a lot of little details in Player’s artwork that are not to be missed like the details of the little monsters at school (there’s a little alien in a space suit? Betty’s quite an artist! Her bedroom carries some fun, unique drawings, etc)

Itty Bitty Betty Blob is a picture book that in 40 pages, perfectly shows younger readers that individuality is not a bad thing and the world is a much more open minded place, if only you bring your most authentic self. From the helpful mindself of Betty’s mom who tries in the beginning to the happy to the joyful and welcoming place that school becomes with Betty’s transformation, I believe that younger readers will pick up on being yourself makes everything less typical, more special and more in line to living your best life. Constance Lombardo and Micah Player have created a memorable book that best illustrates why embracing yourself is the greatest gift to yourself, appropriate for ages four to eight.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own

This may be the most adorable book I have read this year. The illustrations are great and the story is fun.

Even monsters sometimes find it difficult to fit in. This adorable story goes on an adventure with Betty to feel more herself and feel confident being the monster she was born to be. The illustrations with Betty being the only colorful character is moving and beautiful.

I seem to like the “monster doesn’t fit in” trope a lot, because here is another one. Betty likes dancing and rainbows not scary things. A lesson about embracing being different and finding your people. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite of the trope, but it’s still worth reading and Betty is a pretty adorable little pepto bismol blob.

This is an adorable book about a monster that doesn't quite fit in with the other monsters. Betty Blob is scared for picture day where she will have to be her most ferocious (something that Betty struggles with). On the way to school on picture day, she finds little puffs that help her dress to be her and not a monster. These puffs join Betty for picture day and help the school and Betty's classmates become a little more unique. It doesn't have the most original storyline, but overall it's a great book about being yourself when you feel different from your peers.

Itty Bitty Betty Blob has always been different. While all the other monsters thrive in all things scary, she’s been all about sunshine and rainbows ever since she was born. Now that picture day is coming up, Betty is stressed out. Every year, she tries her best to be big, scary, and downright monstrous and it never comes out right because scary is just not who she is. Dressed up in a black dress for her big picture, she gets lost on the way to school and stumbles upon a big cheerful grove and finally embraces who she really is.

I loved following Betty as she tried so hard to fit in when she was clearly the odd one out. She just wants to please her mom by being the big scary monster that’s just not who she is. We see her struggling to fit in with her friends at Ghoulington Academy, but she struggles every day because she’s trying to be something that she’s not. I really enjoyed reading this because it perfectly captures what it feels like trying to fit in when you’re different from what’s expected of you. When we see Betty embrace who she is, we see how happy she is. She shines from the inside out, and even her mom is proud because she sees that she’s no longer struggling.

The artwork is absolutely beautiful, and I love how much color slowly bleeds into the black and white artwork. It really helped tell the story and I think that it’ll really capture young reader’s eyes as they read along. This is such a perfect book to buy for young readers. I really like that Betty’s friends love seeing her shine when she embraces herself, and no one frowns at her not being down right monstrous. I think it has a powerful message that comes through in a way that kids can easily understand and even identify with.

This is so cute! I loved both the dark and colorful pages. I also enjoyed the lesson with Betty not changing herself to cater others or to please other people/monsters. A truly fun read with beautiful visuals.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Itty Bitty Betty Blob is the cutest children's book I've come across this year! With a beautiful message about owning who you are and beautiful art to match, I would highly recommend to young readers. Very sweet!!