Tropical Terry, written and illustrated by Jarvis, is a story about friendship, self-esteem, acceptance and learning to love who you are.

Terry is a plain blue fish that lives in Coral Reef City, the home of the most dazzling shoals of tropical fish in the ocean. Terry lives with his best friends, Cilla the crab and Steve the sea snail. The three friends enjoy playing games together — dodge-a-dolphin, shark speed and hide-a-fish — and Terry is always the best at hiding!

Terry asks the tropical fish to play with him and his friends, but they all say ‘no’ and call Terry and his games, ‘dull’ and ‘boring’. The name calling makes Terry feel very sad — until, the next morning, he has a brilliant idea! This idea may just get Terry accepted by the other fish!

He decides to use bits and bobs in the ocean to decorate himself to look like a dazzling tropical fish, in the hope to attract the others in playing with him and being his friend — and to his delight — it works!

However, Terry no longer has time to play with his old friends, (poor Cilla and Steve), all until Terry and the tropical fish are stopped by a very unwelcome visitor and Tropical Terry must decide who he really is and which friends he can trust.

Jarvis’ illustrations are always beautiful and are packed full of wonderful vibrant bold colour illustrations and shapes, and in this book, it works perfectly on the blue background representing the ocean. The illustrations are packed full of lots of detail, from bubbles to little creatures sitting amongst the coral, and humorous facial expressions and emotions on all of the creatures too — guaranteed to make any little ones (or even big ones) laugh. There is also a fun twist at the end, which complements the overall message perfectly.

Tropical Terry is full of humour and a beautiful heart-warming message which explores the importance of friendship. A fun and enjoyable story that will be perfect for storytime — I loved it!

[Book supplied by the publisher for possible review on MyBookCorner, according to our policy. We review the books we love.]

Like This Post