I Was Never A Baby! Best Friends, Peppa Pig by Neville Ashley

"This is an old photo," said Suzy. "It was taken when we were just babies."

Peppa snorted. She didn't remember Suzy being a baby. That was just silly!

Then Suzy tells her something shocking...

"In the olden days you were a baby, too," said Suzy.

Suddenly Peppa Pig is having a bit of an existential experience. It seems she has been friends with Suzy forever, but she has no memory of being a baby. So how can that be? Suzy cites an authority.

"Ask your mummy!" she said.

Mummy!" cried Peppa. "Suzy is making up stories!"

But Mummy has documentary proof. She opens up her picture folder on her computer and shows Peppa pictures of herself as a very little baby with Mummy and Daddy. Daddy smiles and points to one photo.

"That's our first day in this house!" he said.

Peppa's world is shaken! The house she's always lived in was NOT always their house! Her parents point to the shelf Daddy put up the day they moved in and reminisce about how Grampa Pig dug a plot for flowers outside that samne day. Peppa looks outside. HA! That can't be true. There's no flower garden there now. But Daddy admits that his first flowers failed to flourish, so he replanted vegetables there, where they are now.

It seems that everything back then was different! That's a bit upsetting! Peppa Pig asks a very important question.

"Was Suzy my friend in the olden days?"

"You and Suzy were always best friends!" Daddy replied.

The important things have stayed the same, after all, in Ashley Neville's Best Friends (Peppa Pig) (Scholastic Press, 2015), as Peppa realizes that she and Suzy have indeed been best friends forever. Figuring out how she can be the same person even though almost everything has changed around her, Peppa, the heroine of the popular Nick, Jr. cartoon series, passes through one of those transitions that all preschoolers encounter as they begin to think about the past and the future. And when Peppa and Suzy see a photo of themselves as babies playing together in a mud puddle, they realize that something else hasn't changed, as they head outside to splash in a muddy puddle that just happens to be waiting for them.

Pair this one, of course, with Peppa Pig and the Muddy Puddles.

Mom Knows Best: Stinky Feet the Dragon by Rhonda Stewart

ELVIN WAS A BEAUTIFUL DRAGON, WITH COLORS THAT SHIMMERED AND GLEAMED. HIS SCALES WERE LIKE PAINTED GLASS THAT SPARKLED WHEN THE SUN SHINED.

BUT ELVIN THE DRAGON HAD A PROBLEM.

No, it wasn't his fiery breath. It wasn't that his wings were too small to get him off the ground.  It wasn't that he couldn't go out to play because he had to guard his hoard in the family lair.

HE HAD.. . STINKY FEET!

Who ever heard of a dragon with stinky feet? But whenever he came down the mountain to the playground to try to make friends withe the children, they shrieked and ran away. When he dropped in on the public pool, the swimmers screamed and scampered for home.

Trailing clouds of serious stink, Elvin the Dragon was draggin' his feet toward his mountain when Mr. Leatherman the shoemaker spotted him.

"WHAT'S WRONG, ELVIN?" MR. LEATHERMAN ASKED.

"THE KIDS WON'T PLAY WITH ME BECAUSE I HAVE STINKY FEET."

MR. LEATHERMAN SMILED AND SAID, "YOU KNOW, ELVIN, JUST WHEN THINGS SEEM DARK, THERE'S USUALLY A RAINBOW RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER."

But Elvin is not buying it.  There's not a rainbow in sight as he drags his scaly tail up the winding path to his mountaintop.

But Mom has a big hug and a BIG surprise in the stack of boxes waiting for him. Inside the boxes are all sorts of shoes.

"MOM! DRAGONS DON'T WEAR SHOES!" ELVIN SAID.

"THEY DO NOW!" MOM SMILED.

Who knew that shoes and fancy socks could counter his stinky feet? It's worth a try, and Elvin, shod in his new red sneakers, tries a casual approach to the kids in the park.

"HI, KIDS!"

Nobody runs away, screaming and holding their noses. Elvin is no longer Stinky Feet the Dragon. He's just a friend come to play.

Everything's coming up rainbows for Elvin, in Rhonda Stewart's Stinky Feet, the Dragon (Inspiring Voices, 2015).  Foot hygiene is an unusual playground problem, but it seems that dragon moms are up to the challenge in this simple little lighthearted tale. Cortni Green's artwork is done up in coloring-book styled blackline outlines filled in with colored pencil for the dragon, and faux naif drawings of the children--with, of course, the inevitable child-styled rainbow at the conclusion, which may just inspire young readers to pull out their pencils and crayons and create their own adventures for Elvin the Dragon.

I Gotta Be Me! Bear and Duck by Katy Hudson

Bear has had it. Being a bear requires poaching some honey from the nearest hive. But being a bee requires that he who pilfers must be punished, and bear has had one too many stings on his nose.

He's had it with bearhood. His nose hurts, his fur is too thick and hot for late spring, and sleeping all winter is nothing but a drag.

"THAT'S IT. I'M DONE WITH BEING A BEAR!"

And just then an alternate lifestyle walks (waddles, actually) by--a mother duck trailed by her little ducktailed darlings, quack-quacking cheerily--and without giving it another thought, Bear steps in to the end of the line. What's not to like about a trial duckdom?

"PLEASE! CAN YOU HELP TEACH ME HOW TO BE A DUCK?"

Mother Duck quickly sizes up the situation. Better to help a bear than be a second helping for one, she figures, so she takes on the makeover.

Nest building is a bit challenging for a bear, and sitting on eggs requires a certain delicacy of positioning, but the next lesson, taking a dip in the pond, is quite refreshing. Splash! For some reason, ducklings don't seem to enjoy a water fight. Oh, well. On to the next lesson--flying!

But before he can attain liftoff, Bear's flying lesson turns into a crash course.

"BEING A BEAR DOESN'T SEEM ALL THAT BAD," REMARKS DUCK PHILOSOPHICALLY.

And there's a honey of a sweet ending in Katy Hudson's just published Bear and Duck (Harper/Collins Books, 2015) when Bear climbs a tree to sulk and finds a trove of honey to share with his new "family." Hudson's enticing pastel ink and watercolor illustrations have a little fun with trying out an unlikely alternative persona while finding a fun family to hang out with in this ducky tale of good friends found. "A charming story of friendship and acceptance, distinguished by humorous and affectionate illustrations," adds Kirkus Reviews" in their starred review.

Just Between Friends: Ballet Cat:The Totally Secret Secret by Bob Shea

"WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO TODAY, BALLET CAT?"

"YOU PICK, SPARKLES."

"LET'S MAKE CRAFTS!" SAYS SPARKLES.

"YAY!" ANSWERS BALLET CAT.

Best friends Ballet Cat and Sparkles the Pony never disagree. But when they spread out their art supplies and start to work, Sparkles spots a problem.

"OH, NO! WE SHOULD NOT LEAP WITH SCISSORS!"

Ballet Cat can't seem to curb her yen to dance while she crafts. And everyone knows it's not safe to jete' with sharp objects!

Time for a new plan! Sparkles produces the checkerboard and starts to set for a match. Ballet Cat is enthusiastic, so enthusiastic that she can't resist some high kicks. Kerplop goes the checkerboard with pieces sailing everywhere.

Sparkles the Pony picks them up politely and suggests that they set up a lemonade stand. But then, on the basis of recent experience, he nixes the idea right away, pointing that Ballet Cat's spins are sure to spill the lemonade sooner or later. Thoughtfully, Sparkles suggests that she might eschew spinning for the day. Ballet Cat replies, just a bit sarcastically.

"HA! GOOD ONE, SPARKLES!"

Like that's going to happen! It seems there's only one choice that accommodates Ballet Cat's spinning, twirling, and kicking. They will have to play ballet yet again today!

But as Ballet Cat fluffs her tutu and starts twirling, she notices that Sparkles is not getting a kick out of kicking and his twirls are half-hearted. Something is wrong, she says to Sparkle. (Ballerinas know these things, you know.)

"I CAN'T TELL YOU. IT'S A SECRET SECRET."

"IS IT THAT YOU ARE NOT SO GOOD AT BALLET? THAT IS NOT A VERY SECRET SECRET, SPARKLES."

"NO, NOT THAT." SAYS SPARKLES SOFTLY.

Sparkles tells Ballet Cat that he knows she won't be his friend if he tells HER his secret secret. Ballet Cat promises that nothing can change their friendship.

"SOMETIMES I DON'T WANT TO PLAY BALLET," HE CONFESSES, WITH A TEAR.

But Ballet Cat has her own surprising secret secret to tell, in Bob Shea's Ballet Cat The Totally Secret Secret (Hyperion Books, 2015), a brand-new easy reading tale of BFFs who put their friendship above everything else. In the straightforward style of Mo Willems' award-winning Elephant and Piggie stories for beginning readers, Shea's bold black line and boisterous colors contrast with the sensitivity of his narration in which real friends understand each other's feelings. (Cat reveals that even she is tired of ballet play every day.) Shea's expressive comic drawings--which use three dots and squiggles for Ballet Cat's necklace and tutu--are full of movement and his spare but skillful cartooning clearly reveals the emotions of his best-best friends. "Shea mines Ballet Cat’s dialed-up enthusiasm and Sparkles’s hangdog expressions for everything they are worth," says Publishers Weekly's starred review. A promising new series for young readers takes the stage, a fantastic follow-up for kids familiar with Shea's hilarious emergent readers' favorites, his Dinosaur Vs. series (see reviews here).

A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N! Waiting Is NOT Easy! by Mo Willems

Piggie enters, page right, with a pronouncement.

"I HAVE A SURPRISE FOR YOU!"

"WHAT IS IT?" GERALD ASKS.

"A SURPRISE IS A SURPRISE!" SAYS PIGGIE.

Piggie is exuberantly smug about her secret, only hinting that it is big, it is pretty, and it can be shared.

At first Gerald the elephant declares that he can wait, but as Piggie keeps that maddening smile on her face, Gerald begins to get antsy.

"WAITING IS NOT EASY."

Piggie is sorry, she says, but they must keep waiting.

Now Gerald is really curious. His forehead wrinkles, his mouth is pressed tight, and now all he can think about is the surprise. He wants his surprise NOW.

GROAN!

Piggie is unbearably calm about it all. She sits, legs criss-crossed and pretends to meditate. But Gerald squirms, his face contorted with the effort, and twists his trunk and his legs into pretzels as he tries to contain himself.

Piggie tries a little teaser.

"IT'LL BE WORTH IT!"

Of course, that only makes Gerald's wait worse.

"GROAN!!

Gerald's elephant-sized moan almost bowls Piggie over. Still the two must wait.

Finally Gerald pitches a little fit. He points out that the day is almost over. It's actually growing darker and darker. They've wasted the entire day waiting, and soon it is going to be too dark to even SEE a surprise. All that for what?

But actually, Piggie's surprise requires the dark, in Mo Willems' latest in series, Waiting Is Not Easy! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Hyperion Books, 2014). At last Piggie's big reveal shows Gerald the Milky Way in all its glory, and Gerald has to agree it was worth waiting for.

And as for Piggie's next BIG surprise? Just wait till Gerald sees tomorrow's sunrise!

"I CAN WAIT," GERALD SAYS.

Mo Willems' odd-couple super stars of beginner books never fail to show how their differences--Piggie ebullient and excitable, Gerald anxious but stodgy--make for pure comedy, all in basic emergent reader vocabulary. Although the interplay between their contrasting personalities is actually quite complex, Willems has a magical way of showing that graphically in his simple but artistically sophisticated line drawings rarely matched in this genre. Good things are worth waiting for is Willems' theme here, but as the all too-human Gerald protests and every reader understands, waiting is not easy! He's right! Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books are such a treat that it is hard for readers (and reviewers) to wait for the next one.

Three's A Crowd? My New Friend Is So Fun! by Mo Willems

"HI, GERALD!"

"HI, SNAKE! HAVE YOU SEEN PIGGIE?"

It turns out that Snake has just seen Piggie. She is playing with Brian Bat.

At first, Gerald is cool with that.

"BRIAN IS NICE," HE SAYS.

Snake agrees. After all, Brian is his best friend.  What's not to like?

Except as a little time goes by, Snake and Elephant start to think about the implications of their best friends getting chummy.  Maybe a bit too chummy.  Gerald wonders if they are having way too much fun with each other.  Snake gets the picture. Gerald's trunk is at half mast, and Snake is feeling, well, lower than a snake's bellybutton.

"IF THEY ARE HAVING THAT MUCH FUN TOGETHER, THEN...

maybe they do not need us...."

Gerald and Snake look at each other in horror.  Could they be losing their best best friends as they speak? They set off to find Piggie and Brian Bat and find them giggling together and announcing that they are playing... best friend games! They have been drawing pictures of their best friends. Do Snake and Gerald want to see what they have drawn?

This is seriously scary. Gerald covers his eyes. Snake points out that he can't even do that!

Is this the end of two lovely friendships?

Mo Willems' latest in his estimable early reader series gets into the scary flip-side of the BFF syndrome, the potential loss of that one-and-only best-best friend, in his new My New Friend Is So Fun! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Hyperion, 2014). Luckily for his fictional characters and his loyal readers, the best-buddy pictures that Piggie and Brian have drawn are of their long-term friends, Gerald and Snake!

Not all such situations have such an amiable ending, with everybody happy, but Willems can't be faulted too much for not taking on that serious social situation in 32 pages and a few dozen words of dialogue. In his expressive portrayal of the anguish on his cartoon characters faces, he certainly foreshadows the fear of losing a friend to a "better" new friend, leaving that story for the moment to other authors, as his joyous pairs look forward to foursome fun together. In this new book Willems continues to provide delightful beginning reader fare while showing how friendship evolves between his two unlikely best buddies.

Conflict Resolution: Pip and Posy: the Snowy Day by Axel Scheffler

IT WAS A VERY SNOWY DAY.  PIP AND POSY WANTED TO GO OUT AND PLAY.

WHEREVER THEY WALKED, THEY LEFT BIG FOOTPRINTS. THEY CAUGHT SNOWFLAKES ON THEIR TONGUES. THEY EVEN MADE SNOW ANGELS.  

The two friends, bundled up warmly in woolly mittens and scarves and waterproof boots, are having  all kinds of snowy day fun. They admire the distinctive snow angels they have made, and that makes them want to make something else--a snowman.

Working together happily, they roll up and stack the three snow spheres and add a smiling face.  But their warm feelings quickly cool when they try determine which kind of snow critter it is. Pip wants to make a snow rabbit with long ears like his.  Posy prefers a snow mouse with round ears like hers.

"SNOW RABBIT!"

"SNOW MOUSE!"

A compromise--one short round ear and one long pointy ear--looks simply silly. Tempers get hot and their friendship quickly chills.

POSY WAS SO MAD AT PIP THAT SHE THREW THE SNOW CREATURE'S HEAD AT HIM.

Push comes to shove, and the former friends are soon having a full-fledged snow fight!  Even the watching crow in each illustration seems to be croaking, "nevermore."

Their mittens soaked and their scarves soggy,  their friendship seemingly turned frosty, Pip and Posy are at a snow day impasse, in Axel Scheffler's latest tale of two friends, Pip and Posy: The Snowy Day (Nosy Crow Books, 2013).  It's time to leave the cold behind and warm up inside, where the two old friends chill out over cups of hot chocolate, in the fifth book in Scheffler's delightful Pip and Posy series. Scheffler's text is spare but sparkling, and his artwork and page design are admirable, with their heavy blackline drawings and font and strong watercolored drawings showing two old friends working out their differences on their own. Kirkus Reviews says, "Just the ticket for children who are developing social skills and learning what it is to be a friend."

Help the Homeless!: Ruff and the Wonderfully Amazing Busy Day by Gillian Shields and Caroline Jayne Church

"BUSY, BUSY, ALL DAY LONG,
TOODLE-OODLE, THAT'S MY SONG."

Ruff is not your lazy, lay-about pooch. His little home is shipshape, his windows washed, his gardens are flower-filled, and he has decided to use some of his extra energy digging a scenic pond out front.

But there are unforeseen consequences.

Ruff's landscaping inadvertently destroys the underground home of little mouse, who is understandably upset with him.

"SOMEONE HAS DUG UP MY HUBBLE HOUSE!" HE SQUEAKS.

"WHAT'S A HUBBLE HOUSE?" ASKS RUFF.

"THAT WAS MY HOUSE!"

So the kind-hearted Ruff stops excavating long enough to construct a cozy shed for Hubble's habitation.

Back at work, with Hubble's help, Ruff soon has the pond dug and filled, and he pronounces it perfect.

But then another homeless critter appears! An unhappy little duckling, unable to keep up with the migration, falls into the pond.  Tears ensue.

"NOW I HAVE NO WHERE TO LIVE!" LOTTIE THE DUCK SOBS.

RUFF AND HUBBLE LOOK AT EACH OTHER.

Hmmm. Ruff has an empty ornamental pond. Lottie has no place to call home. Perhaps his pond is not quite perfect. Perhaps what it needs most is a perfectly picturesque duckling plying its waters. It's all in a day's work in Gillian Shields' and Caroline Jayne Church's homey little story, Ruff! And the Wonderfully Amazing Busy Day (Harper, 2013).  Ruff is as cute as a speckled pup, which is how Church portrays him, but a pooch with a kind heart for needy new friends. It's a sweetly simple tale that captures the preschool nature of her characters gently, with a theme that softly suggests an admirable personal code of behavior.

Perfect Pals? Fluff and Billy by Nicola Killen

"I'm swimming!" said Fluff.
"I'm swimming!" said Billy.

I'm splashing!" said Fluff.
I'm splashing!" said Billy.

Fluff and Billy seem to be the perfect penguin pals. After all, they like to do all the same things, right?

Well, all this me too-ism is fine with the older Fluff--for a while. But soon he begins to weary of the constant echo and his dutiful doppelganger shadowing every move he makes. Finally Fluff vents his frustration and lets Billy have it with a face full of snow right in the beak!

I'M not talking to YOU!" said Billy.

It's a standoff, with the two young penguins turning their backs on each other and on their friendship.

Then Fluff spots a small tear in Billy's eyes and his anger begins to melt like the remains of the snowball at Billy's feet. What can he do to warm up their friendship again?

Nicola Killen's short and sweet tale of friendship's warm and cool moments is well-told in her Fluff and Billy (Sterling, 2012), and youngsters will intuit the premise that true friendship can weather a bit of cooling off, and will giggle along with Billy as Fluff finds a way to thaw the pals' pique.

"BLARGIE! BLARGIE?" Cat the Cat, Who Is That? by Mo Willems

Cat the Cat surely likes her friends. There's good buddy Mouse the Mouse, her inexplicably best friend. Then there's the slightly stuffy Duck the Duck and surfer dude Fish the Fish, all with their own style of greeting, all as familiar as her own whiskers.

But then, Cat the Cat meets up with a genuine stranger.

Stacking blocks in her own neighborhood, there is a truly indescribable someone--or someTHING!

CAT THE CAT! WHO IS THAT!

EEEP!

I... HAVE... NO... IDEA.

It's tall. Its eyes are on stalks. It has three legs.

And FOUR arms.

And it can talk. "Blargie! Blargie!" it burbles at her.

Cat the Cat's tail goes all bottle-brushy and her ears are at full alert.

But the Alien seems harmless, with what might be loosely construed as a smile on what might be interpreted as its face. So Cat the Cat gets brave! Maybe.... Could "it" even be a friend?

Cat the Cat tries to twist her tongue around the creature's greeting. She tries out her own version of "blargie!" The creature blargies right back!

A friendship is born.

Mo Willems' ever perky Cat the Cat is back with yet another very simple early reader, Cat the Cat, Who Is That? (Balzer & Bray, 2010). Into this little book of very few basic words, Willems pours all his considerable and lauded skills of illustration and dialogue into turning his basic line drawings into individuals with their own individual personalities. For very early emergent readers not quite ready for his award-winning Elephant and Piggie early reading series, the adventures of Cat the Cat are simply the cat's whiskers.