Odd Couple: Rat and Roach-Friends to the End by David Covell

EVER SINCE THAT DAY THEY MET, RAT AND ROACH HAVE BEEN SIDE BY SIDE.

THEY GET ALONG GREAT...

MOST OF THE TIME.

Even the best of buds have their disagreements, and it looks as if proximity can be getting problematic around their own household, a sewer under Avenue A in mid-town. Roach is a persnickety pest: he likes prissy decor and fine and fancy cuisine, and hates Rat's mucky footprints on his clean carpet, his moldy garbage breath and odious off-gassing, and he particularly hates Rat's heavy-handed hugs! Rat has had it with Roach's pettiness and his too pretty housekeeping! The little annoyances soon escalate into a major squabble, and this vermin fray quickly approaches a best-friend breakup.

Will this critter couple split forever, or will a cooling-off period give these household pests a second chance as roomies? In David Covell's brand-new Rat & Roach Friends to the End (Viking, 2012), there's not much doubt, given the title, that these two will work it out, but the fun is in Covell's quirky illustrations done up in an appropriately refuse-brown palette, which give this familiar friendship premise a decidedly different setting.

As Publisher's Weekly puts it succinctly, "Covell introduces a classic New York City odd couple in his debut picture book."