In this buoyant picture book, Polly Dunbar illustrates the strange and wonderful things that happen when a little girl lets her creativity fly. It starts when Katie decides to liven up a gray day. She puts on her brightest clothes, takes hold of a paintbrush, and sets her imagination loose. “I certainly feel much brighter when I put on my best blue shoes,” Polly Dunbar says. And readers are guaranteed to get a boost from what Kirkus Reviews calls “a joyous cure for a case of the doldrums . . . exuberant, to say the least.”

With her next picture book, Dog Blue, Polly Dunbar again builds on the theme of the power of creativity. In an engaging tale full of whimsy and humor, the author-illustrator introduces Bertie, a boy who loves dogs and the color blue—and finds a creative way to make his fantasies come true. “Dog Blue was inspired by a little Dalmatian puppet who lives in a blue shoebox with air holes in the top for ‘breathing,’” Polly Dunbar says. “The story was written for Neil, his owner, who has blue eyes, a blue sweater, and like Bertie, loves dogs.” With illustrations creating a feeling of “informal but elegant simplicity,” says Kirkus Reviews, Dog Blue wins fans for its fetching artwork as well as its clever style.

In addition to creating children’s books, Polly Dunbar works as a freelance illustrator in London.