Time to Travel? Ollie and Claire by Tiffany S. Haber

Ollie and Claire are best friends. Every day they meet and do the same things together. They even like to do yoga and yodel together! Their daily routine is, well, routine.

DINNER EACH NIGHT--BOLOGNA ON WHITE, PROMPTLY AT 7:15!

BUT CLAIRE WAS AWARE THAT SHE NEEDED A CHANGE.

"I'M BORED WITH THIS HUM-DRUM "ROUTINE."

Then on their daily stroll a sign catches Claire's eye.

TRAVEL FRIEND NEEDED FOR ROUND-THE-W0RLD JOURNEY!

ADVENTURE CALLS! COME CIRCLE THE PLANET WITH ME!

MEET ME MONDAY, HERE!

Claire is all set to starting packing her grip for a round-the-world trip--until she thinks about Ollie.  Ollie is such a stick-to-the-schedule, stick-in-the-mud type that Claire's sure he'd never sign on to a globetrotting adventure, but how can she give up this chance of a lifetime? Then again, how can she leave her old friend behind?

Tiffany S. Haber's Ollie and Claire (Philomel, 2013) deals with the dilemma of personal differences between best friends in a manner similar to Holly Hobbie's Toot and Puddle stories, except that, as the cover illustration by Matthew Cordell suggests, Ollie and Claire turn out to have more in common than Claire had thought, with a humorous and heartfelt ending. As Publishers Weekly points out, "Haber’s  rhymes are both metrically precise and delightfully original."