"Let's Call the Whole Thing Off!" I Love You Already by Jory John

"AH!" SAID BEAR. "I REALLY LOVE SPENDING LAZY WEEKEND MORNINGS AROUND THE HOUSE, SPENDING A PLEASANT DAY BY MYSELF."

And Bear is up for it. In his well-worn bathrobe, a cup of steaming tea beside him, he settles down in his easy chair with his newspaper and a stack of books he's been waiting to read. Perfect!

But his buddy Duck has other plans for the morning. His idea of a great morning is to take a stroll with his friend Bear, just like in his new book 101 Walks to Take with Bears, and he hustles over to Bear's house, his feathers all a-flutter, and bangs on the door, demanding Bear come along.

I CAN TELL YOU MY LIFE STORY! YOU CAN TELL ME YOURS!"

"NO. AND NO!" SAYS BEAR.

But Duck won't take no for an answer, so Bear reluctantly plods along beside him, disgruntled and silent, as Duck babbles on about the clouds. Duck renews his offer to tell his life story.

"YOU ALREADY SAID THAT!" BEAR POINTS OUT.

Duck insists that if they share their life stories, they will be better friends. Bear counters that they are already friends. Duck suggests that teaching him juggling or sharing a swim across the lake would make them closer.

Bear insists that he already likes Duck just fine, but Duck renews his efforts to please, showing off and finally falling out of a tree, only to get the response he's been trying for all along.

"YOU'RE MY BEST FRIEND, DUCK!" CRIES BEAR.

It's the perennial story of a pair of unlikely friends who nonetheless really care for each other, in Jory John's newest, I Love You Already! (HarperCollins, 2015). Artist Benji Davis portrays the laconic introvert Bear and the frenetic extrovert Duck as the odd couple perfectly, with body language and facial expressions that practically tell the story. "The perfect way to say I love you all year round," says Children's Book Council.

Pair this not-exactly Valentine's Day friendship story with John's and Davis' first joint venture, Goodnight Already! (see review here).

Until We Meet Again.... See You Next Year by Andrew Larson

EVERY YEAR WE TAKE THE SAME ROADS.

WE ARRIVE AT THE SAME BEACH.

WE STAY AT THE SAME PLACE.

And that's the way beach lovers like it. The little beach town is the same, with its retro two-story motel overlooking a wide beach, dotted daily with big bright umbrellas and and happy beachgoers swimming, playing, sunning, and reading in the shade. Seagulls soar and scream overhead, and beyond the waves, the sea stretches on forever, as it always does.

It's a child's paradise, the stuff of lifelong memories.

But this year there is something different.

This year she finds a friend.

HE SHOWED ME HOW TO HOLD MY NOSE AND DIVE UNDER THE WAVES.

Having a friend makes all the difference. They ride the waves all the way in to the beach They dance and march together to the brass band in the town bandstand. And on a foggy, no-beach day, her friend writes postcards back home and gives her one of his and a stamp to do her own. One day they feel like digging. But before they reach the center of the earth, they reach sea level first, as water rises up in their hole.

On the last night their parents build a fire of driftwood on the beach under the stars and they roast marshmallows.

I'M GOING TO TAKE MY MARSHMALLOW STICK HOME AND SAVE IT FOR NEXT YEAR.

And that's not her only reminder of her week with her friend. There's a postcard waiting ... with just four wonderful words.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Lucky is the child (and grownup) who has such memories, and Andrew Larson's See You Next Year (Owlkids Books, 2015) nostalgically evokes the feelings of a week at the beach--the long anticipatory drive through familiar towns, the thrill of seeing the ocean again, unchanged and waiting, the mix of joy at familiar sights and activities and the touch of sadness as the precious days pass all too quickly.

Author Larson captures this memorable experience in a narrative of exquisitely chosen words, while Todd Stewart's illustrations feature the individualized children against an atmospheric blend of abstract beach grass, waves, and seaside skies through day and night in a lovely ocean palette of blues and greens. A hopeful promise to children who haven't spent time at the seaside and an emotional remembrance for the adults who share this book with them, this is a simple yet sophisticated encapsulation of experience within the pages of a small book.

Taking Care: The Lion and the Bird by Marianne Dubuc

LION WAS WORKING IN HIS GARDEN ONE DAY WHEN HE HEARD A SOUND.

Lion looks around and sees a fallen bird, with a broken wing.

"OH, YOU POOR LITTLE THING!

LET'S BANDAGE YOU UP!"

As Lion gently picks him up, he follows the bird's anguished gaze and see his flock vanishing over the horizon.

Lion reassures the bird that he will be welcome to stay over the winter in his warm safe house, and he keeps his promise.

Bird's wing heals, but he remains with Lion, and slowly Lion's lonely life changes as he shares it with his new companion. Tucked warm and safe in little nest inside Lion's woolly winter cap, Bird looks out as Lion ventures outside in the strange, wintry snowscape.  Lion takes him on his toboggan, where they whiz down hills or stop for a bit of ice fishing at the lake. At night they enjoy the warmth of the fireplace, Bird tucked snugly inside one of Lion's slippers, and spend the long evenings in quiet companionship. Lion realizes that winter is not so hard and long with a friend.

But as the winter passes into early spring, as snowdrops poke their buds through the melting snow, Bird seems to grow restless with the fireside. And one day, when they are outside, he perches on a limb and looks up to see a flight of birds heading north, and he knows what he must do.

HE LOOKS DOWN AT LION.

"YES," LION SAYS. "I KNOW."

Bird flies away with the flock, looking back, as on the ground Lion grows smaller and smaller in view behind him.

"SOMETIMES LIFE IS LIKE THAT," SAYS LION SOFTLY.

Lion is alone again. He is sad to be without Bird, but he still watches the sky, in hope that his friend will not forget him.

Marianne Dubuc's The Lion and the Bird (Enchanted Lion Books, 2014) is a gently told parable that touches on many of the qualities of relationships--caring, sharing, and finding closeness, but also giving the other the freedom to do what he must. Like the prodigal, of course, Bird returns when the cold winds begin to blow, to share Lion's cozy house for the winter as their friendship continues. Although there are deep meanings in this story, Dubuc's easy narrative, combining humor, loss, longing, and love and her nuanced, evocative drawings make it easy for young readers to sense these truths. "... a remarkably moving, and—considering it features two animals—deeply human story," says Publishers Weekly in their starred review.

For slightly older primary students, this one makes a great compare-and-contrast read aloud along with Sergio Ruzzier's similar A Letter for Leo.

Common Denominator: Pirate,Viking, and Scientist by Jared Chapman

PIRATE WAS FRIENDS WITH SCIENTIST.

SCIENTIST WAS FRIENDS WITH VIKING.

VIKING AND PIRATE WERE NOT FRIENDS.

Scientist has a problem. His birthday party is coming up soon, and he'd like to invite all his friends. But Viking and Pirate can't stand each other. And these two can cause some major mayhem when they get together.

But Scientist believes in the scientific method. There's got to be something they can enjoy together.

Birthday cake?

The cake doesn't survive the fight over it between the two.

Party games?

A furious free-for-all follows!

Results of the experiment are negative. But before Scientist scraps his hypothesis, he decides to try again to find common ground between the warring factions: he asks three questions:

"DO YOU LIKE BOATS?"

"YES!" SAID PIRATE. "YES!" SAID VIKING.

"WHAT DO YOU KEEP UNDER YOUR PILLOWS?"

"A SWORD!" THEY BOTH ANSWERED

"WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE WAY TO SPEND SATURDAY MORNING?"

"PILLAGING AND PLUNDERING!" THEY SHOUTED!

Bingo! Scientist has his conclusion. With common ground established between Pirate and Viking, it's time for something else they both like--ice cream, in Jared Chapman's Pirate, Viking, and Scientist (Little Brown and Company, 2014). While pillaging and plundering are not exactly recommended weekend pastimes, Jared Chapman's goofy little tribute to the scientific method does establish the value of negotiation to get even these ruffians to YES. Chapman's zany cartoon characters are over the top in a way that makes his point that almost any antagonists can find something to agree upon, and he does so in a way that hits a couple of curriculum targets as well. As Publishers Weekly puts it, "... it’s great inspiration for classroom science units or at-home Venn-diagramming."

My Buddy Wrote Me A Letter! Herman's Letter by Tom Percival

DEAR HERMAN,

HOW ARE YOU? MY NEW HOME IS OKAY, BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME WITHOUT YOU.

THE WEATHER IS NICE AND SUNNY AND I HAVE MADE SOME NEW FRIENDS.

IN FACT, THEY HAVE JUST COME OVER!

GOTTA RUN!

YOUR BEST FRIEND,
HENRY

Herman and Henry had been friends forever. They spent all their time together, playing pirate in their treehouse or concocting secret codes and a secret handshake for their hidden clubhouse. When Henry has to move far, far away, the two old friends promise to write each other faithfully.

Herman is happy to find Henry's first letter in his mailbox, but when he opens it, what he reads makes him even sadder. Henry, it seems, has a new life and new friends, while he is just moping alone. He knows he should write back to Henry, but what is there is say? He has no new friends and no fun to report. Miserable, he puts off answering that letter. Finally, he gets another letter from Henry.

DEAR HERMAN,

GUESS WHAT?

I HAD A RIDE IN A HOT-AIR BALLOON! I WISH YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THERE.

I HAVEN'T RECEIVED ANY OF YOUR LETTERS. I MISS YOU SO MUCH!

YOU ARE MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WORLD. I HOPE YOU WILL VISIT SOON.

Herman is filled with hope. Henry is still his best friend! He sits right down and writes that letter to Henry, but when he hustles through the snow to mail it, he finds that the Post Office is closed for the winter. Although his hibernation time is fast approaching, Herman realizes that he must deliver the letter to Henry himself.

Growing sleepier and sleepier, Herman sets out. He crosses frozen rivers, only to find himself facing a climb up a very tall mountain.

"OH, BOTHER!"

Will Herman hand deliver his letter before hibernation sets in? Will the best friends be reunited? In Tom Percival's Herman's Letter (Bloomsbury, 2014), there's some suspense as Herman fights his way over frosty hill and dale, crevasse and cliff, but the main fun in that this story is told through the best friends' letters. Many kids have lost a best friend to a move, and readers need only to lift the flap of the carefully addressed brown envelopes to know what's going on in the best friends' minds. Along with Percival's appealing illustrations, the epistolary picture book has a lot of emotional and interactive appeal for young readers not to mention a curriculum tie-in for kids just learning how to write a friendly letter for themselves.

Critter Quarters: Julia's House for Lost Creatures by Ben Hatke

JULIA'S HOUSE CAME INTO TOWN

AND SETTLED BY THE SEA.

It seems that Julia can settle down wherever she wills, being that her rambling but tumbledown old house sits upon the back of a giant tortoise.

Her cottage by the sea is picturesque, but soon it is too quiet for Julia's taste.

Up goes a sign, JULIA'S HOUSE FOR LOST CREATURES, and it doesn't take much time to attract tenants. But they are a fantastical lot--and a troublesome lot as well. It's not too hard to see why this bunch are homeless.

There's an annoying troll who constantly moans the lack of a bridge to lurk beneath. Patched-up Kitty walks up the walls. The mermaid monopolizes the bathtub, and everyone demands fresh towels. As more and more creatures come to stay, Julia is suddenly too busy, providing cozy fires and tea and toast at all hours. Quiet it's not.

And Julia's motley visitors are a sloppy lot as well. Washing up, sweeping up, and mopping up behind everything from yellow duckies to dragons has her run ragged. Julia's House for Lost Creatures requires a little rethinking.

And soon another sign goes up:

JULIA'S HOUSE: CHORE CHART

Ben Hatke's Julia's House for Lost Creatures (Roaring Brook Press, 2014) is a piquant little tale of the perils of innkeeping for fanciful beasties. Like the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe, Julia, in her tidy green kerchief and apron, and her prosaic housekeeping dilemmas, are all too ordinary, while her roomers are exceedingly extraordinary. All these tea-drinking ghosties and ghoulies make for some humorous illustrations, done delightfully in Ben Hatke's light black line and pleasant blue and green-hued palette.

Kirkus Reviews observes, "Hatke steps from graphic novels (Zita the Spacegirl) to the picture-book format with aplomb, blending tropes from both worlds for a sweetly weird domestic adventure. Readers will want to move right in."

Biblio-Buddies: A Library Book for Bear by Bonny Becker

When Bear opened the door, there was Mouse, small, gray, and bright-eyed.

"We are off!" exclaimed Mouse, with a happy wag of his whiskers.

Bear frowned. He had agreed to go with Mouse to the library, but now he was quite sure it was a dreadful mistake.

"Completely unnecessary," Bear announced. "I have all the books I need right here."

Bear points a definitive paw at his mantle, where there are indeed seven books--four about kings and queens, two about honeybees, and one about pickles.

But a promise is a promise, so Bear straps on his red roller skates, grabs a basket for Mouse to ride in, and rolls off. Bear is intimidated by the look of the large, imposing library, but Mouse pulls him inside cheerily. Bear feels overwhelmed by so many books, so he heads for a quiet nook between two well-stocked stacks.

"Hmmmph! Terribly extravagant!" Bear grumbles.

Bear is not one for wretched excess, and he continues grumping at Mouse, who gamely tries to please him, retrieving first a book on wooden canoes and then a book about rockets.

"Ridiculous!"

Bear's voice was getting louder.

"Quiet voices in the library," counsels Mouse politely.

Bear informs Mouse that he is most capable of finding his own book, one about pickles. After all, he has one about pickles.

"I can assure you that pickles are quite interesting!"

A loud SHUSH is heard from the other side of the stack. Bear peers around the shelf and sees a librarian reading a story to a circle of young listeners. A mother raccoon glares at him to be quiet.

Bear is affronted and announces that he is ready to leave, when he hears a line from the story.

"So the very brave bear began to inch his way toward the treasure chest...

And inside the chest there was a mound of pickle slices...made of diamonds and gold...

Bear is hooked.

And as he rides home in Bear's basket, on top of a pile of indubitably interesting pickle books, Mouse's eyes are very bright.

Bonny Becker's brand-new (and already best-selling) latest in her series, A Library Book for Bear (Bear and Mouse) (Candlewick Press, 2014), continues her stories of the curmudgeonly, change-resistant Bear, and his friend, the small, gray Mouse who knows just what Bear wants before he knows he wants it. With gentle, wry understatement in the narrative and the soft watercolor illustrations of Kady MacDonald Denton, this one is another not-to-be-missed entry in this joyfully insightful series on the intricacies of friendship.

Other delightful books about this odd couple of friends are A Visitor for Bear (Bear and Mouse), A Bedtime for Bear (Bear and Mouse), A Birthday for Bear: Candlewick Sparks and The Sniffles for Bear (Bear and Mouse), each one better than the other.

Personal Space: Dog Vs. Cat by Chris Gall

ONE DAY MR. BUTTON WENT TO THE ANIMAL SHELTER TO PICK OUT A FRIENDLY-LOOKING DOG.

ACROSS TOWN, ON THE SAME DAY, MRS. BUTTON WENT TO A PET STORE AND BOUGHT A SMART-LOOKING CAT.

HOWEVER, THE BUTTONS HAD ONLY ONE ROOM FOR THEIR PETS.

Obviously, Cat and Dog are going to be resistant roommates. But both can see that they are better off at the Buttons than in their previous housing arrangements, so they agree to bury the traditional dog vs. cat hatchet, shake paws, and try to make the best of it.

But soon they realize that their personal habits are not a good fit.  Dog litters his side of their room with sports toys, cast-off dog bone boxes, spends a lot of time in his recliner watching the game on the tube. Cat is a persnickety housekeeper, with a place for everything, and everything in its place, especially her prized books on their proper shelves.  Dog's predilection for sniffing everything constantly drives Cat up her tree, so to speak, while Cat's fondness for clawing anything that moved made it hard for Dog even to wag his tail!

AND THEN THERE WAS THE LITTER BOX ISSUE.

"CAN'T YOU GO OUTSIDE LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE?" SAID DOG.

"I HAVE INDOOR PRIVILEGES," SAID CAT, STANDING RESOLUTELY IN HER LITTER PAN.

The roommate war escalates. Cat fills Dog's dish with hacked-up hairballs. Dog ends one of Cat's frequent naps with a dog dish full of cold water. They try get each other in trouble with the Buttons--Cat uses a high-frequency dog whistle to make Dog howl in the middle of the night, and Dog sprinkles catnip all over the living room to trigger Cat into a upholstery-ripping frenzy.

The Buttons are at wits' end, and Dog and Cat seem to be at a balance-of-power stalemate.

Finally, they decide to wall off their sections of their room and ignore each other totally. Cat uses her bookshelves to delimit their space, and Dog piles on helmets, hockey sticks and tennis rackets so that they cannot even see each other.

Peace reigns for the odd couple roommates until... both of them discover that isolation is lonely and boring.

A heartwarming reconciliation follows, and it looks like Dog and Cat have an idyllic life ahead of them.

And then....one day the two pacified roommates hear an unpleasant sound outside the door of their room.  Waaawwwhhhh!  Could Mr. and Mrs. Button have come up with another pet to share their quarters? Horrors!

THEN MR. AND MRS. BUTTON BROUGHT IN THE CAGE.

THE CREATURE NEVER SEEMED TO STOP SCREECHING....

AND IT CERTAINLY COULDN'T USE A LITTER BOX. (OOOH--THE SMELL!)

If Cat and Dog thought rooming with each other was a challenge, sharing their crib with the Button's new baby and his crib is something else, in Chris Gall's hilarious new Dog vs. Cat (Little, Brown, 2014). Gall's comic, color-filled illustrations add much in the way of visual humor to his dead pan narrative delivery throughout, and readers will pore over each detail on his bright double-page spreads. Gall's foreshadowed final sight gag on the last page will leave 'em laughing in the ironic tradition of the best picture book humor.

Mean Girl: Bad Astrid by Eileen Brennan

SHE CAME INTO TOWN
LIKE FIVE TONS OF BAD LUCK.

A new girl on the street can be a good thing, but one look at the stocky, bellicose Astrid and you just know she's going to be trouble. And right away she gets busy living up to her appearance.

MEANER THAN ANY GIRL
YOU'LL EVER MEET...
SHE AND HER FAMILY
MOVED IN DOWN THE STREET.

Apparently born under a bad star, Astrid goes out of her way to be mean. She rides her bike through sidewalk drawings and tries to run down chipmunks. She charges through front yard flowers and leaves them beheaded, chuckling hoarsely as she plows through. Even her bike helmet sports a skull and crossbones.

Whenever anyone looks like they are having too much fun, Astrid finds a way to spoil it--knocking over the sidewalk lemonade stand in the process of a squirt-gun sneak attack.

Finally our brave narrator has had it with Astrid's meanness. At last she is mad enough to confront the bully when she careens through her popsicle-stick Eiffel Tower and deservedly suffers a spectacular bike encounter with the neighbor's mailbox and lawn gnome.

"HELP! PLEASE?" Astrid moans.

Could this be the right moment to re-negotiate this relationship?

Artist Regan Dunnick takes charge of this story with a comic portrayal of Astrid--a chunky, droopy-eared, be-jowled pooch of a bully with a build like a kitchen stove, all reckless mayhem and mean-girl menace. Astrid is the sort of bully that kids love to hate, but even bullies have feelings, as Eileen Brennan's Bad Astrid (Random House, 2013) suggests in ironic quatrains. This one is a novel approach only in Brennan's choice to deal with girl bullies, playing on the samefamiliar theme as Brandon Mull's Pingo and the Playground Bully (see my May review here) and Matt Davies' Ben Rides On, (reviewed here also in May). Even Mo Willems takes a playful look at the perennial bully problem premise in his newest best-selling beginning reader, A Big Guy Took My Ball! (Elephant and Piggie Book, An) reviewed also in May here. Bullies are a perennial problem, a prominent subject even in primary grade literature, and until all of them mend their errant ways. which will probably happen by approximately the twelfth of NEVER, authors and illustrators are guaranteed plenty of material to work with!

A Comedy of Errors: Pug and Doug by Steve Breen

PUG AND DOUG WERE ALWAYS HANGING OUT TOGETHER BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT BEST FRIENDS DO.

PUG AND DOUG HAD LOTS IN COMMON, TOO!

They share a fondness for doughnuts, scary vampires, and not-so-scary polka songs. But like most of the best buds in literature, they also have their differences. Doug dotes on the artistic side of life: he spots fantastical shapes in clouds and sculpts a passable snowman facsimile of Rodin's The Thinker. Pug does none of the above. His snowman looks more like Quasimodo, and to him, a cloud is just a cloud.

SOMETIMES DOUG THOUGHT THAT PUG COULD BE A REAL STICK-IN-THE-MUD!

But all is well with them until Doug's birthday approaches. Suddenly it seems that Pug is avoiding him. He has to dash down town "to pick up a friend." Doug spots one of their favorite photos together in Pug's trash. And then, when he begins to spy on him, even stooping to snooping through his window, he sees an fresh entry in Pug's diary:

"I'M REALLY SICK OF OLD DOUG... "

On a mission to discover what their problem is, Doug is about to knock on Pug's door when he hears his voice inside telling someone "You're my buddy!"

Brokenhearted, Doug comes to the inevitable realization that he has been supplanted in the best friend department.

In this comedy of errors, Doug's fertile imagination is NOT his best friend. It turns out that the Pug was interrupted while journalling and intended to write "I'm sick of old Doughnuts!" And his new best "buddy," is actually Pug's birthday gift for Doug, a parrot named, of course, "Buddy."

All's well that ends well, as Shakespeare's comedies of error conclude, and these two unlike and unlikely friends, like Frog and Toad, Elephant and Piggie, and many another comic pair, discover their misunderstandings when they talk things over...

"...BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT FRIENDS DO!"

Steve Breen's new odd-couple tale, Pug and Doug (Dial, 2013) makes this oft-told tale of comic misunderstandings fresh and new with  the subtle sub-theme that differences are what often give a friendship that special spark. The final-page panels have an unexpected but predictable little anecdote which ends the story with a bit of comic irony that readers will relish.

Breen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, uses his expertise in pacing panels within his layout to get the maximum comic effect out of his story's misadventures. As Publishers Weekly puts it, Breen's "design enhances the reading experience by turning a gentle, humorous story into a bit of a page turner."

In the Bleak Midwinter: A Flower in the Snow by Tracey Corderoy

IN AN ICY KINGDOM FAR AWAY LIVED A LITTLE GIRL NAMED LUNA.

LUNA LOVED TO CATCH SNOWFLAKES ON HER TONGUE, OR LEAVE LITTLE TIPPYTOE PATTERNS EVERYWHERE.

BUT THERE WAS ONE THING SHE LOVED MORE THAT ALL THIS.

HE WAS BIG AND SOFT AND CUDDLY AND WAS LUNA'S BEST FRIEND.

Luna and Bear share everything, even a case of the sniffles, for which they retreat to Luna's igloo to convalesce under her little plaid blankie.

But then one day Bear finds a beautiful golden flower blooming in the snow and picks it as a gift for Luna. Luna names it her "sunshine flower" and is thrilled with its warm color, but as all blooms do, finally it fades and droops. Luna is sad.

LUNA'S SPARKLY SMILE DISAPPEARED.

Determined to find Luna another such flower to rekindle her sparkling eyes and smile, Bear sets forth into the lands beyond his icy kingdom. He searches the world over without finding the equal of Luna's beloved sunshine flower.

Back at home Luna looks at the moon each night and longs for her best friend. She misses the flower, yes, but she realizes that she misses her Bear more. What can she do to make him return?

But when the footsore and dejected Bear returns, he finds that Luna has found a way to grow her golden flower from the seeds of his gift, and it lights the Arctic dusk like a beacon for Bear.

Tracey Corderoy's just-published wintry tale, A Flower in the Snow (Jabberwocky, 2012) uses the symbol of the golden bloom to frame the importance of love and loyalty well, but it is Sophie Allsopp's lovely illustrations which gives this fantasy parable substance through the warmth of her big, round Bear and little Luna in her enveloping parka and furry boots. The landscape and background are snow-white, with the artist's subtle use of color  evoking the warmth of friendship. A quiet tale for just the right quiet moments with just the right child.

Odd Couple: Rat and Roach-Friends to the End by David Covell

EVER SINCE THAT DAY THEY MET, RAT AND ROACH HAVE BEEN SIDE BY SIDE.

THEY GET ALONG GREAT...

MOST OF THE TIME.

Even the best of buds have their disagreements, and it looks as if proximity can be getting problematic around their own household, a sewer under Avenue A in mid-town. Roach is a persnickety pest: he likes prissy decor and fine and fancy cuisine, and hates Rat's mucky footprints on his clean carpet, his moldy garbage breath and odious off-gassing, and he particularly hates Rat's heavy-handed hugs! Rat has had it with Roach's pettiness and his too pretty housekeeping! The little annoyances soon escalate into a major squabble, and this vermin fray quickly approaches a best-friend breakup.

Will this critter couple split forever, or will a cooling-off period give these household pests a second chance as roomies? In David Covell's brand-new Rat & Roach Friends to the End (Viking, 2012), there's not much doubt, given the title, that these two will work it out, but the fun is in Covell's quirky illustrations done up in an appropriately refuse-brown palette, which give this familiar friendship premise a decidedly different setting.

As Publisher's Weekly puts it succinctly, "Covell introduces a classic New York City odd couple in his debut picture book."

Pointed Wordplay: Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story by Kara LaReau

MR. PRICKLES WAS NOT A PARTICULARLY FRIENDLY FELLOW.

MUCH OF HIS UNFRIENDLINESS WAS DUE TO THE FACT THAT MR. PRICKLES WAS A PORCUPINE.

AT FIRST MR. PRICKLES TRIED TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE OTHER FOREST ANIMALS.

But it's tricky to make a close friend when you're hard to get, er, close to.

And the cliquishness of those fur-weather friends in the forest is not much help either.

"YOU'RE NOT CUTE LIKE US!" SAID RACCOON. "OR CUDDLY LIKE US!" SAID CHIPMUNK.

"OR PLAYFUL LIKE US!" SAID SKUNK.

"I AM INSIDE," SAID MR. PRICKLES.

But the would-be playmates can't get past his prickly persona, and being excluded from the group doesn't do Mr. Prickles' personality any favors either. Their pointed quips pierce his soul, and Mr. Prickles feels he'll always be a quilled outcast, unfriended by his particular social network.

But it's a big world out there in the forest, and one day Mr. Prickles bumps into a similarly equipped and be-quilled personage, in the form of Miss Pointypants, and it seems that Cupid's arrow may have made its way to his heart. Even though their would-be pals nickname the quilled couple "Spike and Barb," it seems that love will find a way and the two prickly personalities may find a way to each others' hearts in a quill-fated friendship.

Author Kara LaReau is lookin' sharp with pointed puns in her latest, Mr. Prickles: A Quill-Fated Love Story (Roaring Brook, 2011), her wordplay ably portrayed in Scott Magoon's playful pictures. As they suggest, everybody has some prickles sometimes, and the trick is learning how to get close enough to see the non-prickliness on the inside.

Quills and porcupines are quite popular these days, making it easy to pair this one with other porcupine picture books that make the same point--Paul Schmid's Hugs from Pearl (see my review here) and Laurie Isop's How Do You Hug a Porcupine?, (reviewed here), two tales that make the point that getting close means learning to see the person inside the prickles.

Fences: The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson

That summer the fence that stretched through our town seemed bigger.

We lived on one side of it.

White people lived on the other.

And Mama said, "Don't climb over that fence when you play." She said it wasn't safe.

"Good fences make good neighbors," said Robert Frost, but he was a crusty New England farmer worried about footloose cows, and even that solitary poet found that good neighbors can come together in their shared humanity.

And as all kids know, fences are made for climbing.

That summer, trying to be a good girl for her mama, Clover keeps to her side, sometimes a bit lonely for a playmate and always curious about the white family just moved into the white house on the other side of that fence.

But Annie is more daring than Clover, and she dares to climb and sit on the top rail, looking curiously as Clover plays in the yard of her yellow house. Early summer brings a string of rainy days, and Clover watches longingly as that girl plays outside in the rain and even splashes in the forbidden puddles.

When at last the sun returns, Clover feels brave enough to approach the fence where that girl is sitting.

I got close to the fence and that girl asked me my name.

We stood there smiling.

"It's nice up on this fence," said Annie. "A fence like this was made for climbing."

"My mama said I shouldn't go on the other side," I said.

"My mama says the same thing. But she never said anything about sitting on it."

Fence-sitting slowly turns into a tentative friendship as the summer warms up, and one fine day, when Clover's friends come over for a game of jump-rope, Annie feels brave enough to slip down on the other side and join the game, and after some fun together, all the girls take a rest on the top rail of that fence, and for the moment, that fence is just a fence made for climbing and sitting.

"Someday sombody's going to come along an knock this old fence down," Annie said.

"Yeah," I said. "Someday."

The multi-award winning Jacqueline Woodson's The Other Side (G.P. Putnam's Sons) returns in its tenth anniversary (2011) edition, as moving and meaningful as ever. Woodson's text is perfect, telling this iconic story so simply and well that it avoids didacticism, and E. B. White's watercolor paintings are so stunning that they practically tell the story without the need for words. Humans have long felt a fear and yet an attraction for the "other," and the combination of text and art reveal this truth of trans-fence-friendship found as well as it can be told.

Interplanetary Penpals: Earth to Clunk by Pam Smallcomb

TODAY MR. ZOOKIAN SAID I HAVE TO WRITE MY PEN PAL.

"HIS NAME IS CLUNK. HE LIVES ON THE PLANET QUAZAR," SAID MR. ZOOKIAN

I DON'T WANT A PEN PAL NAMED CLUNK FROM THE PLANET QUAZAR. I'M NOT WRITING A LETTER.

I'M SENDING CLUNK MY BIG SISTER. THAT WILL TEACH HIM.

Our unwilling little correspondent packs up his bossy sister, pictured yelling angrily through the box, and ships her off to Clunk, feeling sure that she will disabuse Clunk of any interest in terrestrial life posthaste.

Apparently not. By return mail comes Clunk's offering, an amorphous Quazarian named Zoid, who resembles a fuzzy smiley face and who annoyingly follows our boy everywhere he goes. Our narrator decides to reciprocate with a packet of overripe lasagna from the back of the fridge. But back comes a thank-you note and another of Clunk's offerings--a trio of tubular Forps. Hunh! Back to Quazar goes a package of super smelly socks. And the potlatch is on!

Gradually, though, our boy becomes a bit fond of Zoid and even the Forps, and when the shipments from Quazar suddenly cease, he begins to feel a bit lonely and deserted by a friend he didn't even realize was a friend.

NO PACKAGE.

NOPE. NADA. ZIP.

Then at last he gets a box from what he is coming to think of as his friend.

INSIDE IS A DISGUSTING BLOB OF SOMETHING.

AND MY BIG SISTER. "YOU ARE SO DEAD!" SHE SAYS.

Obviously our boy and Clunk have one thing in common--their aversion to his big sister. Soon our narrator invites Clunk for a sleepover, and an intergalactic friendship is bonded when they build a fort in the basement and repel an invasion from a very grouchy big sister.

Pam Smallcomb's latest Earth to Clunk (Dial, 2011) is a genuinely funny fantasy tale of an unlikely friendship, illustrated wryly by English artist Joe Becker in a pleasant retro style which conjures up both Norman Bridwell's simplistic cartoon tales and Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes comics. Pair this one with Claire Freedman's Aliens Love Underpants and/or James Marshall's classic tale Space Case (Puffin Pied Piper) for some storytime fun that's, well, out of this world!

These Boots Are Made for Dancin': Every Cowgirl Needs Dancing Boots by Rebecca Janni

EVERY COWGIRL NEEDS DANCIN' BOOTS, AND I HAVE A BRAND-NEW PAIR.

BUT YOU CAN'T GO DANCIN' ALL ALONE.

MAMA SAYS, "HOW ABOUT MAKING FRIENDS WITH THOSE NEW GIRLS ACROSS THE STREET?"

"THE GLITTER GIRLS?" I ASK.

It's complicated being a cowgirl in her suburban neighborhood, but Nellie climbs into the saddle of her trusty pink two-wheeled bronco and rides off, not into the sunset, but in search of potential hoedown partners. The Glitter Girls like dancing all right. But it's the wrong kind of dancing. Instead of pink cowgirl boots and Stetsons, they go for tutus and ballet slippers. Instead of do-si-dos, they choose a demi-plie.

Nellie needs a way to find common ground. So she takes the bull by the horns. She hangs out her shingle:

FIRST ANNUAL BARNYARD BASH!
Y'ALL COME! DANCE TONIGHT!

But the Glitter Girls give her invitation a supercilious look.

"BALLERINAS DON'T BELONG IN BARNS," SAID AN OLDER SISTER. "BUT WE'LL THINK ABOUT IT."

MY BRAIDS WERE DROOPIN.'

But Nellie Sue screws up her cowgirl courage and spunkily prepares for a bash which she fears may be a bust. She drags in hay bales, hangs up lanterns, pops lots of popcorn. stirs up pink lemonade, and dudes herself up in hopes that someone will come to her party in Rebecca Janni's cute little cowgirl tale, Every Cowgirl Needs Dancing Boots (Dutton, 2011), and with the artistic assistance of noted illustrator Lynn Avril, the garage is rockin' as the sissonnes and sashays come together in a dancin' good time. Janni's text offers a nice twist on a "new kids on the block" story, with a spunky heroine who dances to a different drummer but shares her pink polka-dotted boots with Anna and finds herself a new best friend to boot

Undercover Cat: Cat Secrets by Jeff Czekaj

STOP! STOP READING RIGHT NOW! THIS BOOK IS FOR CATS ONLY!

Three cartoon cats take the venerated volume out of its locked museum case and share the sacred text. Their leader begins to read aloud.

THE FIRST CAT SECRET IS....

But his buddy whispers a warning that there is an unauthorized reader out there in readerland! Our orange-striped narrator has to do an immediate security check. Right in the reader's face, he boldly insists on proof that they are not a bird, a snake, dog, fish, boy, bear, girl--or heavens forbid--a MOUSE!

You say you're a cat. Prove it. The top cat orders the reader to meow, to purr, to stretch like a cat. They watch. Hmmm. Not bad. Okay, it's safe to proceed with the reading.

WAIT! The infallible test of cathood first. Napping. Unfortunately for our trio of cats, even that word brings on somnolence and one by one their eyelids droop and they begin to softly snore, to the great glee of a clever mouse, who has been waiting and watching on the edge of the page, to making a snatch for Cat Secrets.

Jeff Czekaj's well-crafted Cat Secrets (Balzer & Bray, 2011) uses only feline facial expressions and word balloons to play out his little scherzo in which the sneaky Mouse out-cats even these felines with cat-itude.

But a (moving) picture is worth 1000 words, so here's the really clever trailer for this one.

A great picture book for sharing aloud or for beginning readers to giggle over all by themselves.

True Confessions: The Big Elephant in the Room by Lane Smith

"Can we talk about the big elephant in the room?"

"The Big Elephant? As in the BIG Problem? I was expecting this!

Because I ate all the crunch-nut ice cream? But what if you had a nut allergy? What then?

A friend can't take that kind of a chance!"

Oh, no! Two donkey friends seem to be about to have a heart-to-heart over their relationship problems, e.g., the ice cream eater's insensitivity. And when the matter is brought up with an apparent bit of circumlocution by the party of the first part, the party of the second part is obviously suffering from the guilts over his frequent unfairness. But he can justify all his behavior. He eats all the ice cream to spare his friend a nut allergy attack--even though he has no reason to believe he has any allergies.

"No! Wait! Is "the Big Elephant" your video game? I was going to return that! Eventually!"

Or could "the Big Elephant" be his choosing the best bike and leaving the baby trike for his friend, or picking his friend last for soccer, or for making fun of his buddy's Rainbow Pony backpack, or the unmentionable swimming pool incident? How about the sticky situation when when he left his Super Glue stick in his friend's chair?

Or could it be that time he told Haley that his friend once laughed so hard that he peed in his pants? Oh, dear!

It seems the party of the second part has a lot to feel guilty about!

"NO! NO! NO!" I don't care about all that! I was just asking about the big elephant in the room."

(Oh, that elephant. The strange white elephant watching TV from the sofa.)

"Oh, that elephant. That's Stanley."

(Pause)

"You really told Haley I peed my pants?"

Now there really is a big white elephant in the room.

Noted artist Lane Smith's usual elongated, quirky drawings add much to the humor of his Big Elephant in the Room, The a hilarious tale of two friends, one thoughtless and the other long suffering, who finally get an unexpected chance to clear the air.

Lane Smith is also the celebrated illustrator of several of Jon Scieszka's award-winning stories, including The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, and Math Curse.