BO-RING! Welcome to Bobville (The City of Bobs) by Jonah Winter

ONCE THERE WAS A PLACE CALLED BOBVILLE, WHERE EVERYONE IS NAMED BOB...

EVERYONE LOOKED JUST THE THE SAME.

.

Everyone wears the same black and white onesie. Road signs say BOB LANE or BOB CROSSING.

There were no mistaken identities, because everybody was a BOB. Yes, it was a bit confusing, but it was also comforting.

Everyone shopped for the same Bob brands:

BOB BRAN FLAKES, RICE BOB, UNLUCKY BOB CHARMS...

All of them were exactly alike. They even thought alike.

Until one morning, one Bob opens his eyes on a new day with a brand new thought.

"I'M SICK OF BEING BOB.

I'M BRUCE!

Bruce was tired of being like every other Bob in Bobville. He got a different haircut and got clothes with wild colors and patterns. He went out into the city being Bruce. It didn't go over well with all the other Bobs.

IT WAS DECIDED THAT THE PERSON FORMERLY KNOWN AS BOB SHOULD BE KICKED OUT OF TOWN.

The Bobs built the Great Wall of Bobville with big signs that said...

BOBS ONLY!

But Bruce loved his happy life as a non-Bob and the rest of the world, who didn't want in anyway, turned their backs on Bobville, in Jonah Winter's newest, Welcome to Bobville: City of Bobs (Schwartz and Wade, 2020), a jolly parable of the perils of predictability, the ennui of uniformity. 

In his illustrations, Bob Staake, the master draftsman of odd characters, makes gentle sport of the Bobs of Bobsville, virtual prisoners in their striped prisoners' uniforms surrounded by their mighty wall of sameness,  while the rest of the world dances to its own piper outside. This Seussian fable is a short and humorous read for preschoolers and a gentle lesson in individuality for primary graders.