ALA Booklist (Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2020)

In her debut, Colombet pulls back the curtain on lemmings' devotion to the arts and high society. Indeed, the opening spread features a detailed cutaway of the lemmings' burrow that reveals the furry rodents performing Hamlet, playing the piano, partaking in a fancy dinner, and having a game of badminton. Bertie, however, does not enjoy this prim and proper lifestyle, so he goes outside and promptly encounters a bear. After a tense moment, the bear makes it clear he wants to be Bertie's friend, and the lemming learns the joys of the bear's uncouth and often muddy pastimes. When Bertie asks the Society of Distinguished Lemmings to admit the bear as a member, they decree he isn't distinguished enough, but an act of ursine heroics soon proves otherwise. Colombet's story of friendship and embracing differences shines most in its endearing pencil illustrations, digitally colored in rustic tones. Speech bubbles scatter across scenes crowded with lemmings, resulting in an adorable and hilarious peanut gallery guaranteed to elicit giggles from little readers.

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Bertie the lemming is chafing under the rules of his highly formal, regimented community (Rule #2: -Always act in a distinguished manner.- Rule #10: -No questioning the rules-). Emerging from his underground maze of a home -wittily evoked by debuting Colombet-s digitally colored pencil drawings-Bertie meets up with a huge, friendly bear (rendered in intricate, velvety textures of cocoa) who opens him up to new and less rule-bound ways of being in the world. But in the eyes of the Society, at least, the bear is at best hopeless and at worst a miscreant: his table manners are lacking, and he likes to jump in mud puddles. -You are distinguished, just in a different way,- Bertie tries to assure Bear after an introduction to the Society goes south. It takes a looming catastrophe and a clever rescue by Bear to convince the lemmings that maybe they can loosen up-a bit. Colombet packs her story with vivid personalities (the earnest, wide-eyed lemmings are a collective hoot), visual jokes, and, as befits a large, opinionated community, many, many dialogue balloons. There is much to linger over and return to in these pages. Ages 6-10. (Mar.)

School Library Journal (Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 CST 2020)

Gr 1-3 Start with end pages depicting nearly 300 individual cartoon lemmings and you may commiserate with Bertie who is fed up with all the noise and high-brow social activities in the burrow. Upon his arrival aboveground, he meets a brown bear, who despite their initial preconceptions of each other's darker nature, gives Bertie a friendly lick. Together, they paint, play chess, and jump in puddles. When the lemming's relatives come up en masse, they examine the bear and find him lacking in social graces. On impulse, the chatty crowd decides to take a seaside vacation while Bertie and his friend read a history of lemming behavior. Bear rushes to rescue the hoard from drowning. They celebrate him and modify their collective's title to "Society of Distinguished Lemmings and Bears." VERDICT This debut picture book requires multiple reads to absorb all of the humor in the various lemmings' conversations and activities like dressing and packing. A quirky addition. Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA