Anita Miettunen June 15, 2017 A Review of Select Friendship-Themed Picture Books Byun, You. Dream Friends. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books, 2013. Print. Dream Friends tells the story of Melody, a little girl with an imaginary friend. While their friendship is magical, it only exists in Melody’s dreams and she can’t coax this friend, who resembles a giant fluffy cat, into the everyday world. But eventually, despite her shyness, Melody makes a real friend who also believes in and meets her dream friend. Byun uses an unusual mixed colour palette of contrasting pastel hues although the illustrations are rendered in brush and ink which are digitally manipulated. This picture book is full of enchanting orange and purple skies and candy coloured trees in the little girl’s dreams creating a fun and action-oriented story. It will delight young readers with its lively pacing and energetic cartoon-styled illustrations. Freedman, Deborah. Shy. New York: Viking, 2016. Print. In Shy, the main character is Shy the giraffe, whose identity is not immediately revealed. He wants to make friends with Florence, a beautiful bird, but he’s too shy and would prefer to hide between the pages of a book. Through clever use of the gutter space, the illustrations suggest Shy is initially hiding in the fold of the book’s gutter before later popping out when he’s feeling braver. Eventually, Shy forgets his shyness and bonds through books with Florence. The illustrations are rendered in pencil, water colour, and coloured pencil. Full bleed digitally enhanced colour spreads in delicate light blues and warm honey tones depict open skies and savannah and evoke a feeling of possibility. The text is kept minimal but helps create the perfect mood. With a few cheerful bird calls, “twheep! twheep! troo lee-lee-lee…,” at the end of the story, readers will feel the happiness that Shy and Florence experience as new friends. Jeffers, Oliver. Lost and Found. London: HarperCollins Children's, 2005. Print. This engaging story of a friend lost and found is the adventure of a little boy and the penguin who shows up on his doorstep. When the boy decides he should help the penguin return to the South Pole, he goes to great lengths to achieve this goal, losing the penguin along the way, before realizing they were meant to be friends. Eventually, the two are reunited and they set off to return to the boy’s home. Jeffers’ simple, stylized characters are full of humour. The little boy, with his red and white striped shirt and wooly cap looks delightfully real even with his stick legs. Bright water coloured spot illustrations mixed with full and double paged spreads create a pageturning tension as the little boy tries to solve his penguin problem and battle epic waves. Even when it looks like all could be lost, a quirky, hand lettered font maintains a fun tone throughout this book. Lee, JiHyeon. Pool. San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 2015. Print. This wordless picture book is the story of a boy meeting a like-minded friend in a swimming pool. Oblivious to all the other swimmers, a boy dives into a pool where he meets a girl swimming towards him. The two share an underwater adventure amongst imaginary creatures, including a huge white whale, before emerging together on the opposite side of the pool. Lee uses coloured pencils and oil pastels in a limited colour palette of light blue, green, red and 1
yellow for the underwater scenes while the world above is rendered in black and white. This creates a soft division between the real and imaginary worlds of the children. As the boy and girl finally meet face-to-face outside the pool, they are illustrated in colour which merges their two worlds together and celebrates their friendship. Na, Il Sung. Bird, Balloon, Bear. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017. Print. Bird, Balloon, Bear is an encouraging story about making a friend. Although shy Bird wants to be friends with Bear, he hesitates and so is left alone when Bear goes off to play with Balloon. But when Balloon suddenly pops, another chance arises for Bird to make friends with Bear. This picture book is only 24-pages long but captures all the emotions of trying to make a new friend when you are shy. Na creates mood, action, and pacing by using sparse text and colourfully painted, textured artwork (digitally enhanced) with both full spreads and spot illustrations. Bright red Balloon drives the first part of the story by floating and flying across the spreads. Dynamic font that swerves and varies in size also creates movement. After Balloon’s dramatic POP! shown in a fiery full spread graphic, smaller spot illustrations and white space let readers regain their breath. The pace livens up again with spot illustrations filling the pages as Bird and Bear discover their friendship. The final golden-hued spread shows Bird enjoying a sunset with Bear and will reassure young readers that even someone shy can make a friend. The humorous poster inside the jacket cover and spotted end pages will add to this book’s visual enjoyment. Rodriguez, Beatrice. The Chicken Thief. Wellington: Gecko Press, 2009. Print. This wordless picture book presents an alternative take on making a friend. Amidst a humorous cast of animal characters, drawn in light-hearted ink and water colour doodles, a villainous fox steals a chicken. What ensues is a chase through forests and cliffs, tunnels and mountains, across day and night and even an ocean. The chicken’s friends (a bear, a rabbit, and a rooster) are intent on saving her. But in a surprise twist, the chicken announces she wants to stay with the fox. Although adults may read too much into the chicken being forcibly kidnapped, young readers will rejoice in the slapstick antics of the “rescuers” and an ending in which everyone ends with a friend. Shapiro, Esme. Ooko. Toronto: Tundra Books, 2016. Print. Ooko is a determined fox looking for a “Debbie,” the term he inadvertently thinks means “friend.” Ooko searches in many places, meets an assortment of people and pets, and tries to look like someone else, before finally discovering he can just be himself and still find the perfect friend. Esme varies the book’s pace and humour by using speech bubbles and different sized hand lettered fonts. Her bright images, which are rendered in gouache, water colour, and coloured pencil, incorporate expanded close-ups, spot illustrations, and full colour spreads. This story is primarily set outdoors and the main colour palette of greens, yellows, and browns reflects this well. A satisfying conclusion is reached in the final spread as beneath the stars, Ooko is shown underneath a log, happily snuggled with his new friend. Readers will enjoy the illustrations for their many humorous details and the end pages with their colourful botanical images. Turnbull, Victoria. Pandora. New York: Clarion Books, 2017. Print. Pandora is a lonely fox who lives in a lifeless landscape of broken things. One day, she thinks she’s found a friend when an injured bird appears. But when the bird recovers and flies away, 2
Pandora is alone once more. Pandora captures the melancholic mood of the lonely fox through coloured pencil and water colour illustrations in a muted colour palette of soft browns, and light turquoise, blue, and pink tones. The text is minimal as Turnbull effectively transitions the emotions of loneliness and despair to happiness and hope through illustrations that gradually introduce brighter colours and images of sunshine, blossoms, small animals and plant life. When Pandora awakens and finds the little bird has returned, the world is once again filled with living wonders, leaving readers with a sense of hope. Watt, Melanie. Scaredy Squirrel makes a friend. Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2011. Print. Young readers will dive right into this funny story about Scaredy Squirrel, a very nervous character who wants to find the perfect friend. Told in a humorous cartoon style and incorporating several graphic design elements, such as maps and lists, this book will especially appeal to reluctant readers. The fast-paced pages are light on text and incorporate plenty of hilarious illustrations both close up and as spot illustrations. Kids will enjoy actively engaging with the illustrations by ticking off the lists or tracking the dog that chases Scaredy Squirrel across the pages when things don’t go according to plan. The simple images are rendered in charcoal pencil and acrylic with minimal detail but bold line work, enhancing this easily accessible narrative. Willems, Mo. Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator! New York: Balzer & Bray, 2011. Print. This picture book is actually “6 ½ surprising stories about 2 surprising friends” presented as “mini chapters” that each recount a comic episode between Amanda and her best friend, a stuffed alligator. There is slapstick tension throughout as the two surprise each other, often through mischievous tricks. Toddlers especially will relate to Alligator’s hilarious impatience as he waits for Amanda to return from her outings and when he takes a while to discover that a new stuffed animal on the scene can become a new friend too. The illustrations make great use of negative space. The main characters pop out as spot illustrations in a limited colour palette of soft greens, pinks and browns within interior background scenes that are simply drawn in black and white. Children will enjoy escaping into this imaginary world where even stuffed alligators and pandas can talk.
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