- An honest review from a free NetGalley read -
When Baby Bee has to spend the night in hospital, 7 year old Blay finally gets some time alone without his sister's crying, drippy snot or smelly nappies. However, in getting his wish he realises that maybe he doesn't mind it quite as much as he'd first thought. In fact, maybe he kind of misses it...
A sweet, simple but beautifully done story of a new sibling and the tensions that children may feel. Whilst the struggles of a new baby in the family is a common theme in children's books, this story by Effua Gleed does a particularly good job at reframing the way that young boys especially are taught to express their emotions. Kamala Nair's clean and charming illustrations do an incredible job of portraying a black single mother, grandparents who live far away in Ghana, diverse school friends and neighbours, a female doctor, and all with interesting, realistic body shapes and vibrant colour pallets. All in all, a wonderful early reader.

A reasonable narrative for an early reader, this presents Blay, a young kid who dislikes the snot and goo coming from his baby sister, and wants time to himself – until of course a medical emergency means he gets his wish. Well, I say emergency – it's nothing that dramatic. Bright colours in the clear illustrations make this amenable to many eyes, pretty much all the characters are people of colour, for those to whom that is important, and it will serve a purpose in showing someone at loggerheads with their own love/hate relationship with their sibling. Does it have what it takes to escape the reasons for its existence and be a book kids choose to re-read? Probably not. A slightly generous four stars, however, for those reasons are not unimportant.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Siblings relationships can be hard and difficult. Siblings are annoying and we spend most of the time arguing and fighting.

However, at the end of the day, if anything happens to us, they have our back. They are the first person we go to when we are in trouble and the first person we call when we have good news.

This lovely story reminded me of my sister and how much I love her, how much fun we had together and how annoying she could be sometimes too.

The Snotty Dribbler put a smile on my face and warmed my heart. It's a beautiful story with an emotional end!