Learning the Hard Way! Koko and Bo by Lisen Adbage

Koko is in his contrary phase!

They've has been at the playground for four hours. The sun is sinking low. Bo declares it's time they go home.

"I DON'T WANT TO," SAYS KOKO.

"DON'T THEN," SAYS BO.

Bo goes inside, but when it begins to get dark, there's a ring at the doorbell.

Koko has found it boring outside and rather lonely.

After dinner and puzzles and snacks, Bo announces that it is bedtime. Koko says NO!

"STAY HERE THEN," SAYS BO.

Not surprisingly, Koko finds his way to bed eventually. But when morning comes and the well-rested Bo declares it's time to get up, Koko says he doesn't want to.

"STAY IN BED THEN!" SAYS BO.

Koko persists in staying in bed while Bo enjoys a leisurely breakfast and gets all her morning chores done.

At last hunger drives Koko to get up. His oatmeal has gotten cold, but by then, it tastes pretty good. Then Bo declares it's time to go out for groceries, but when a raincoat is suggested, Koko says NO!

After a rainy bike ride to the grocery, Koko complains of being cold. Luckily, Bo has an extra sweater. And when Koko declines to sit in the grocery cart seat, Koko watches him wander off, ready to rescue him when the store manager has to announce a woeful missing child over the loudspeaker.

"Experience keeps a dear school," said Benjamin Franklin's famous saying, and Bo is clearly letting Koko learn a few things the hard way, in Lisen Adbage's Koko and Bo (Enchanted Lion Books, 2018). Adbage's storytelling is simple, spare, and pointedly predictable, letting her funny illustrations and book design make the case for letting kids learn to take sensible advice even if they have to experience a few consequences in Franklin's "dear school.""Sublime," says Kirkus Reviews. "The author's choice to present life without lecturing shows uncommon respect for her readers."

Alibi Betty: Betty Bunny Didn't Do It by Michael B. Kaplan

"MAN!" SAID BETTY BUNNY'S BROTHER BILL. "YOU ARE A HANDFUL."

Betty Bunny's brother Henry and sister Kate thought she was a handful, too. In fact, as usual, they were too busy to play with little Betty. So Betty decides that she will play ball by herself. She grabs a ball and glove.

THERE WAS NO ONE TO THROW THE BALL TO. SHE THREW IT ANYWAY.

OOOPS!

Mom's favorite lamp bites the dust. Betty knows she's in a compromising situation. She begins to stuff the broken lamp under the rug, but Henry and Kate catch her in the act. Then Mom arrives to survey the situation.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" SAID BETTY. "THE TOOTH FAIRY DID IT."

BLAMING SOMEONE ELSE WAS A GOOD IDEA. BETTY BUNNY WONDERED WHY SHE HADN'T THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE.

Big brother Bill has a momentary spell of protectiveness for his baby sister and tries to take the rap for her, and Mom congratulates him for confessing. Now Betty sees that fessing up is a new way to get some compliments out of Mom, so she comes up with a real whopper. She confesses to robbing a bank and waits expectantly for the praise to start rolling in.

It seems that it's time for one of those serious talks with Mom.

How that handful Betty Bunny learns what it means to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth is the subject of Michael Kaplan's latest in his Betty Bunny series, Betty Bunny Didn't Do It (Dial, 2013). Betty is an ebullient preschooler who readily admits to telling "an honest lie," but discovers that Mom and Dad have a different idea about the true meaning of honesty. Sorting out the difference between little white lies, whoppers, and the honest truth is Betty's job de jour, in the third in Kaplan's  comic Betty Bunny tales. Stephane Jonisch's softly humorous illustrations of Betty being herself are sympathetic to this youngster sorting out the rules in a big family where things can get confusing when you're the youngest. Kirkus Reviews nails the insouciant charm of this new Betty tale well, saying "Jorisch's enchanting watercolor illustrations capture Betty's bouncy behavior and her family's reactions with delightful flair, from the carrot-shaped hair ornament on Betty Bunny's head to the hint of a mustache on the teenage brother's suitably snide upper lip."

Earlier books in this series are Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake (see review here) and Betty Bunny Wants Everything. (see review here.)

To Friend or Unfriend: Friends (Mostly) by Barbara Joosse

RUBY AND HENRY, HENRY AND RUBY. USUALLY WE'RE FRIENDS, BUT SOMETIMES WE'RE UNFRIENDS. IT ALL DEPENDS.

There are bazillions of children's books chronicling the process and joys of friendship, but as the bards have reminded us down the ages, the course of true friendship does not always run smooth.

So it is with BFFs Ruby and Henry. Ruby picks the best birthday presents for friend Henry--not just another coloring book, but a fake nose with adjacent mustache, and she's the professional mourner at his goldfish funerals. And only Henry knows that what Ruby really wants for her birthday is her very own lipstick. But sometimes they disagree, and sometimes they even fight.

I SPLASHED HENRY'S TOWEL ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE. "CUT IT OUT!" HE SPUTTERED.

"SERVES YOU RIGHT," I MUTTERED. "WHO WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH A SHOW-OFF?"

But being unfriended is scary, too. What if the former friend finds a new best friend? Who else likes to do all their favorite things together? And will saying "I'm sorry, really sorry!" bring back their friendship?

In the award-winning Barbara Joosse's newest, Friends (Mostly) (Greenwillow Books, 2010) the classic tension between staying independent and being a friend is delineated for the youngest readers, not as a steady state but as an ebb and flow, even on the final page, where we see a snoozing Henry on his beach towel and Ruby, with a devilish gleam in her eye, sneaking up with a fat balloon and a pin poised to give him a rude awakening. Lively and colorful cartoons by Tomaso Milian fill the pages with plenty of motion to hold the reader's attention. It's not Shakespeare's King Lear, but it's a easy beginning to the understanding of human relationships as a never-ending process.

Joosse's ending?

NOT THE END....