All For One! Brothers by David McPhail

MOST OF THE TIME THEY GOT ALONG.

SOME OF THE TIME THEY SQUABBLED.

It's inevitable that siblings are going to disagree. Some days big brothers won't share, even if little brothers ask (nicely). No fair!

Sometimes they decide to take turns.

And then they can't agree on whose turn it is.

Sometimes one says it's the other's fault. Sometimes one nicely assumes part of the blame.

"IT WAS MY FAULT, TOO!"

After all, you never know when you might skin your knee and need a ride home for first aid.

When they happen to like to do the same thing, brothers sometimes come up with an idea how to have it their own way.

THEY BOTH LIKE CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM, BUT ONE LIKES IT IN A CONE,

WHILE THE OTHER INSISTS ON A CUP AND A SPOON.

In his charming board book edition of Brothers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014), there are good things and bad things about having a brother around, and artist David McPhail's tender and empathetic illustrations show both sides of the trials and triumphs of sharing everything--from one bike to part of the blame for a broken lamp to one bed when a scary nighttime thunderstorm blows in. It's nice that McPhail finally got around to creating a companion book to his still popular Sisters.  And parents of a pair of each, brothers and sisters, had better have a copy of each, just to be fair.