Friends Indeed! All Kinds of Friends by Shelly Rotner

Friends come in all sorts--sizes, shapes, colors, and ages.

YOUNG FRIENDS, OLD FRIENDS.

NEW FRIENDS, BEST FRIENDS.

There a family friends--brothers and sisters and cousins and whatever.

There are friends from next door that are always there.

Some friends have feathers or fuzzy fur.

FRIENDS WITH DIFFERENT FACES

WITH FAMILIES FROM DIFFERENT PLACES.

They can be taller or smaller, funny or serious. They can climb rock walls, bounce basketballs; they can choose to be caped crusaders or dressy princesses. They can giggle with your or help you with your math.

Sometimes they are sad, and sometimes they get mad.

GOOD FRIENDS. TRUE FRIENDS.

That's what we all want, and friendship is the subject of Shelly Rotner's All Kinds of Friends (Millbrook Press), one that in its many charming photos reminds everyone of the diversity to friends to be found. Conversational in tone but written in easy-reading, rhyming couplets, this sensitive book is perfect for a read-aloud during the early days of the school year when finding new friends is a really big deal for young students. Notes Booklist, "Given the demand for preschool and primary-grade books on friendship, particularly in the fall, many libraries will want to have this volume on hand."

Shut-Eye Time! YAWN! Grumpy Cat, A Grumpy Cat Bedtime Story by Steve Foxe

"GRUMPY CAT! IT'S ALMOST BEDTIME!

IT'S OUR LAST CHANCE TO PLAY TODAY!"

It's that odd couple of cats again--Little Kitten, who can't say anything without an exclamation point, and Grumpy Cat, who can't say anything without a grimace.

Little Kitten is ebullient, ardent, and keen on everything.

Grumpy Cat is curmudgeonly, contrarian, and recalcitrant about anything.

Little Kitten drags Grumpy Cat through the whole miserable bedtime routine--bathtub toys and floods of suds, perky look-alike pajamas, and especially the obligatory bedtime story.

"I READ A STORY ONCE. IT WAS AWFUL!" GROUCHES GRUMPY.

But Little Kitten's begging results in a grudging compromise from Grumpy Cat:

"LET'S SKIP TO THE BEST PART!

THEY ALL LIVED GRUMPILY EVER AFTER.

THE END!"

Grumpy Cat is back in his third storybook for youngsters, in Steve Foxe's Yawn! A Grumpy Cat Bedtime Story (Grumpy Cat) (Little Golden Book) (Golden Books, 2018 ). Grumpy's reaction to everything is a virtual YAWN, and bedtime with Grumpy Cat is predictably no sweet snooze in this latest little tale, illustrated appropriately in drab and dusky shades by Steph Laberis. Other books in the Grumpy cat series include A Is for Awful: A Grumpy Cat ABC Book (Grumpy Cat) (Little Golden Book), Grumpy Cat's First Worst Christmas (Grumpy Cat) (Big Golden Book) and The Little Grumpy Cat that Wouldn't (Grumpy Cat) (Little Golden Book).

The House That Pete Built: Pete the Cat and the Tip-Top Tree House by James Dean

PETE THE CAT HAS BUILT A TREE HOUSE.

One by one his friends--Callie Cat, Thomas Cat, Marty Monkey, Emma Dog, and Grumpy Toad--show up and lend a hand with the construction.

Pete is proud! Of course he invites all his helpers to a tree-house-warming party.

"COME PLAY!"

Pete and his pals climb up the ladder. But when they all get into the tree house, there's just one problem.

"IT'S TOO SMALL!"

Cheerfully Pete shrugs and agrees to expand his construction. Emma Dog draws up the blueprints and, and like most new houses, all the friends add their ideas for the perfect tree house. They start the expansion project, each one working on a special section to do their own favorite thing.

Marty Monkey has a video game arcade. Pete has a wave pool for indoor surfing. There is a bowling alley, a movie theater, a ski park, a climbing wall, and an ice-skating rink. Every friend has a place for his own favorite thing to do. There's just one problem.

"WE ARE ALL ALONE!"

It's the old story of too much of a good thing, in James Dean's newest, Pete the Cat and the Tip-Top Tree House (My First I Can Read) (Harper, 2017), as Pete the Cat and his pals descend to head for the good old jungle gym where they can all play together. James Dean's story of the perfect fantasy play place is a likable lure to get emergent readers to practice their beginning reading skills while living out their summer play fantasies in this new My First Book in Harper's famous I-Can-Read series, now celebrating its fortieth anniversary.

What a Deal! An Elephant and Piggie BIGGIE! by Mo Willems

A DAY PIGS WILL FLY?

Everyday is a red-letter day for Mo Willems' peculiar pair of pals, an elephant named Gerald and a pig named... Piggie, now appearing together in a collection of their peerless beginning readers which celebrate their exuberant but unusual friendship. Despite his size, Gerald is cautious, careful, and, to tell the truth, a bit of a nerdnick. Despite her petite stature, Piggie is boisterous, adventurous, and endlessly enthusiastic.

Their new collection of best-selling and award-winning easy reader books includes five of their funniest stories, An Elephant & Piggie Biggie! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) includes five of their funniest stories, Today I Will Fly! (An Elephant and Piggie Book), Let's Go for a Drive! (An Elephant and Piggie Book), Can I Play Too? (An Elephant and Piggie Book), and that culinary killer-diller, I Really Like Slop! (An Elephant and Piggie Book).

Only Gerald and Piggie could figure out how to include their friend Snake in a game of catch, or assemble everything they need for a drive--sunglasses, umbrellas for two, a map, their valises--until Gerald notices one thing they forgot--they don't have a car. Only Piggie could prepare her favorite food for her friend--that porcine specialty, a home-brewed bowl of slop--and only the persnickety Gerald would take a sip, despite the flies, just to please his best friend.

This is a five-for-the-price-of-one deal, and no preschooler should have to prepare to be an emergent reader without these hilarious and, yes, heartwarmingly poignant stories of Elephant and Piggy. and their truly BIG friendship. It's a biggie bargain, all right!

Breaking Bad? How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends? by Jane Yolen

HOW DOES A DINOSAUR KEEP HIS BEST FRIEND

WHEN A TERRIBLE FIGHT JUST MIGHT BE THE END?

Making up is hard to do.

When young dinosaur friends have a fuss, it can be a beaut!

DOES HE WRITE ON THE BLACKBOARD A VERY BAD NAME?

DOES HE TELL ALL THE KIDS THAT HIS FRIEND IS TO BLAME?

Even the best of friends can get into a disagreement that can turn ugly. When he's angry, a dinosaur may do outrageously shocking things--tearing up his friend's book, throwing his lunchbox in the pond, even egging his door to settle the score.

Is this the way to keep a friend?

NO.

All friends fall out of friendship with each other from time to time, but Jane Yolen's latest in series, How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends? (Blue Sky Press, 2016), takes on the tasking of making up after breaking up.

HE SENDS A NICE NOTE TAKING MOST OF THE BLAME.

HE'S SURPRISED WHEN HE FINDS THAT HIS FRIEND DID THE SAME.

Yolen's friendly rhyming couplets portray the ways youngsters can make peace after a squabble--sharing a new toy at a special playdate, making and taking homemade cookies over on a plate, all the ways of saying "Can't we still be friends?" As always in this popular series, Yolen's text and Mark Teague's super-sized illustrations provide the ying and yang of the situation, first the worst alternatives, followed by the preferred examples, done up in Teague's comic style, a spoonful of sugar that takes the sting out of the proffered how-tos of personal life. Making making up a bit easier is the premise of the latest Yolen and Teague collaboration, and as is their custom, Yolen and and Teague offer esoteric examples of dinosaurs, identified on each page and reproduced on the eye-catching endpapers for dino afficionados.

Pair this latest with Yolen's and Teague's recent in their dynamite How Do Dinosaurs series, How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe? (Blue Sky Press, 2015).

Two for Tea: Tea Time for Sophia Grace and Rosie by Orli Zuravicky

SOPHIA GRACE AND ROSIE JUST LOVED HAVING TEA PARTIES. IN FACT, THE TWO COUSINS HAD ALREADY THROWN SEVERAL OF THEM.

BY NOW THE GIRLS WERE EXPERTS IN EVERY KIND OF TEA PARTY IMAGINABLE.

Well, not exactly. The cousins can't wait to do it again--to tea-par-tay hearty in their best shindig ever.

Will there be invitations? YES! With plenty of pink stickers!

Will it be a fancy dress affair, with tutus and tiaras? Well, of course, dahling!

Will there be a fairy theme with lots of PINK fairy dust? Will there be chocolates and pastries? You know it!

Not much suspense here.

In fact, the only unknown factor in this scenario is whom the cousins will invite to the tea party. They come to an agreement that each will invite one special guest, and the suspense builds to see which special persons will show up on the afternoon of the big soiree'.

Light and slight, Orli Zuravicky's Tea Time with Sophia Grace and Rosie (Orchard Books, 2013) serves up a frothy confection of a story based on the cousins who have appeared on the Ellen show, charming that audience with their oh-so British accents and teatime talk. While the pink-tinged solipsism of Zuravicky's story-time party girls (who, of course, invite only each other to their fete) seems to stress exclusion over inclusiveness, little girls who go for spangled tutus, sparkly tiaras, and of course, rainbow-sprinkled sweets will likely want to be virtual guests at this party.

For a more realistic look at the deeper point of the tea party trend, pair this one with Jane O'Connor's little treatise on friendship, Fancy Nancy: Tea for Two for more substantial tea party fare (see my recent review here).