Both Ends Now! When Pencil Met Eraser by Karen Kilpatrick and Luis Ramos, Jr.

PENCIL LIKES TO WORK ALONE.

But Eraser won't be left behind. He butts in and erases the top of the skyscrapers in Pencil's elaborate cityscape.

"NOW YOU CAN SEE THE SKY!"

Hmmmph. Pencil mutters something about art being the business of artists and draws a field of grass and flowers to prove it. Eraser hops into action and erases a path to use to walk through the meadow.

Pencil sketches a sailboat and a sea to sail upon. Eraser scrubs out the waves.

"LOOK NOW! SMOOTH SAILING!!!"

With a sharp look, Pencil scratches out a deep forest of dark, shaggy evergreens. Eraser rubs out the treetops to make room for a sky full of stars!

All this dueling is wearying--PERIOD. Pencil is looking dull and Eraser seems a bit frayed, too. Maybe it's time for a compromise before they are both worn down to nibs and nubs, in Karen Kilpatrick's and Luis Ramos, Jr.'s When Pencil Met Eraser (Imprint, 2019). It all ends amiably, as they agree they are born to be together, in a two-for-one duo, with Pencil creating a jigsaw puzzle, and Eraser strategically removing some lines to turn it into a maze! At last the two co-creators agree that they work better together! Illustrator German Blanco makes good use of pencil line drawings in mostly black and white to personalize his two warring characters. Says School Library Journal, “Readers young and old alike will love this imagining of the dynamic duo that is Pencil and Eraser.”