With A Little Help from My Friends: Rita and Ralph's Rotten Day by Carmen Agra Deedy

In two little houses,

on two little hills,

lived two best friends.

Every day Rita and Ralph run down and up two hills to meet together between their houses under their apple tree. They high-five and pinkie shake and play together until it's time to part and return to their houses. They are the best of friends. But...

Then one day... they played a new game: Sticks and Stones...

Ralph hits Rita right on her head with his stone.

"UH-OH!"

"OUCH!"

Rita runs home, closes her door, and puts an ice bag on her head. She feels angry. Ralph feels sorry.

The hills between Rita and Ralph feel like a hundred years. But she is his best friend, so Ralph runs down and up and down and up all the hills to Rita's house. But by the time he gets there, he is feeling cranky about the whole thing.

"I'm SORRY!" he barks.

Rita won't come outside, so Ralph runs back down and up and down and up the hills to his house and closes his door. He's mad. Meanwhile, at her house, Rita is beginning to feel a bit sorry. She trudges up and down the hills to Ralph's house, but by the time Rita gets to Ralph's house she is angry again. She shouts up to Ralph's window that she wants her special pinecone back. Ralph throws it down to her.

Nobody's sorry now.

But after a sleepless night for the former best friends, they both leave their houses and head up and down and up and down the hills to meet in the middle under their apple tree.

"I'm sorry," says Rita.

"I'm sorrier!" says Ralph.

In a witty story of conflict resolution, best-selling author and illustrator Carmen Agra Deedy and illustrator Pete Oswald come together in Rita and Ralph's Rotten Day (Scholastic Press,2020), an appealing collaboration which portrays the process of managing emotions and reconciliation which seem to be an almost inevitable learning experience of childnood. Artist Pete Oswald sets up the up-and-down terrain which becomes a metaphor for these ups and downs of friendship in his clever illustrations of the two houses separated by four hills and dales and deftly uses the eyes of his characters to portray emotions of the two characters. Even their two pets, Rita's puppy and Ralph's kitty, and the flock of black birds flying from Ralph's house to Rita's symbolize their anger. It's a simple little story that has layers of depth supported skillfully by artist Oswald's charming illustrations and book design.

Says Shelf Awareness' starred review," A terrific read-aloud... Rita and Ralph's tiff, told with a sweet freshness, is a timeless, engaging tale with which any young reader is likely to identify."