A nice hot drink and warm words are prepared to explain it all away.
Grandpa uses positive words to alleviate the negative ones that are stifling Blair’s brain; to bring a smile and remove the frown.
A stunning double-spread expresses the darkness that envelops someone who is blue. There is no light. They feel alone.
Dani Colvin has captured these emotions in her illustrations, by using colour to describe the characters' feelings.
Here she presents a single person walking along a grey, darkened road, with storm clouds in the sky ahead.Reinforcing the image of dejection, are two possums clinging tightly to stark, leafless branches of a tree above, staring into the same darkness as the solitary figure below.
It is Grandpa’s expressions of confidence and assurance, that declare all the great things in Blair, that the child can’t see or feel about herself.
The moving prose reassures that supportive words can bring recovery when someone believes in the person who is blue.
Coloured air balloons float in a perfect sky above a restoring image of nature. Freshly hoed paddocks, sheep grazing, and white daisies are scattered across a grassy knoll.
A red plane pulls a banner with positive beliefs written across it in large letters. The bad feelings seem to float away.
Grandpa’s words bring bright colours back into Blair’s mind, replacing the dark shadows.
Blair is reminded that mistakes are like experiments. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. One must learn from them. They are proof that the sufferer tried to run the longer race, and to endure the darkest hour.
Dani Colvin's stunning portrayal of the many faces of sadness/feeling blue, in her emotive sets of rhyming verse, are to be applauded.
This beautiful, uplifting book beckons and will benefit readers of all ages. Its carefully chosen words have certainly created what the author intended - an image of hope, belief in oneself, courage to overcome, encouragement and love. Simply divine!
Title: I Believe in You
Author/Illustrator: Dani Colvin
Publisher: Walker Books, $25.99
Publication Date: 1 August 2025
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781760656133
For ages: 6+
Type: Picture Book
