The Blah

The Blah
Jack Kent ~ Parent's Magazine Press, 1970

One more Kent to end the day! Once again, here's Jack channeling the child who feels voiceless...Once upon a time there was a Blah...
a nothing...a nobody...named Billy.
"I'm just a Blah!" Billy told his mother,
who was busy and wasn't really listening.
That's how it is being a Blah.
Nobody listens to you.Billy' brother doesn't notice him either and runs right past, crushing his crayons in the process. So, Billy draws a picture of himself as a Blah. Deciding there must be other Blahs in the world, he draws more in all different colors except for the green, of course, because his brother smashed that one. In his colored world, Billy finds all sorts of disenfranchised people, and he and his Blahs decide to go into battle against Billy the Blah's brother... wherein a "jostling" match occurs, more crayons are smashed... until Billy's mother awakens him from his scribbled daydream and Billy finds out that sometimes, she feels Blah too. Man, do I know that feeling. I think we all can feel pretty blah sometimes.As for the drawings, I love the contrast between the original characters and the ones Billy has colored. So smart and funny. Plus, the Blahs are awesome. And who doesn't love that little polliwog peeking out of the water in the illustration above? It's easy to get lost in Billy's daydream.

Also by:
Jack Kent's Twelve Days of Christmas
I Was Walking Down the Road
The Grown-Up Day
The Fox and the Crow
The Biggest Shadow in the Zoo
The Animobile Book
Jack Kent's Book of Nursery Tales
Dooly and the Snortsnoot
Mr. Meebles
Cindy Lou and the Witch's Dog
Clotilda
Jack Kent's Valentine Sticker Book
The Bremen-town Musicians
Round Robin
Just Only John
Fly Away Home
Fat Cat
Piggy Bank Gonzales
Socks for Supper

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