Review by New York Times Review
On the first day of school, being 'the new kid' isn't easy. YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! Written and illustrated by Peter Brown. 40 pp. Little, Brown & Company. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) MARSHALL ARMSTRONG IS NEW TO OUR SCHOOL Written and illustrated by David Mackintosh. 32 pp. Abrams. $16.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) SEA MONSTER'S FIRST DAY By Kate Messner. Illustrated by Andy Rash. 36 pp. Chronicle. $16.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) WILL you be my friend? With the possible exception of "Does this look infected?," there is no more off-putting question. Friends are like handkerchiefs: everybody needs them, but the sight of someone asking for one is so mortifyingly vulnerable that you want to avert your eyes from the whole mess. As with handkerchiefs, it's probably best not to look at friendship too closely, at least until you've had it around for a while. We stick with our friends for an entanglement of reasons, and three new picture books, while ostensibly feel-good tales about making friends, turn out to be much closer to the complicated and murky truth than one might guess from their cheery covers. Also, two of the books have splendid artwork. The third, alas, is "Sea Monster's First Day," in which the illustrator Andy Rash, dreaming up a sea monster named Ernest, squanders an opportunity by giving us a cartoon we've all seen before, a bright green brontosaurus or perhaps a cousin to the Loch Ness monster (his favorite toy is "Little Nessie"). Although the title sounds natal or cosmological, the book is actually about the first day of school, and Ernest swims around the watery campus of Lake Ernestamke, mapped out in the frontispiece, trying to make friends. A game of Marco Polo doesn't work out. He dwarfs the swing set. Some of the schools of fish (get it?) are standoffish. Only when Ernest catches a glimpse of a lakeside roller coaster does Kate Messner's hero discover the key to popularity: letting the other aquatic creatures ride up and down his curvy form. While some may take umbrage at the implied lesson - imagine telling a teenage girl that the best way to make friends is to offer her body as a carnival ride - a roller coaster is an apt symbol for the rough and tumble of social life. One moment nobody likes you; the next you're a big fish. I wish "Sea Monster's First Day" were more fun to look at, but that's life at the bottom of a lake. Happily, David Mackintosh's books are always something to look at, so it's no surprise that "Marshall Armstrong Is New to Our School" takes on friendship from a different angle: the book is narrated by an established insider, forced to be nice to the new guy. Young Armstrong is fascinating, and Mackintosh gives us a two-page spread of his oddities, ranging from the physiological ("His freckles look like birdseed on his nose") to the sartorial ("His laces are straight, not crisscrossed like mine") to the misunderstood ("His glasses belong to another boy" - i.e., Ray Ban). The narrator's not eager to attend the birthday party of this precocious, allergic, fountain-pen wielding stranger, but Marshall Armstrong's house turns out to be a similar parade of wonders, from the thrilling ("We all ride down the special fireman's pole, from the top of the house to the bottom") to the intriguing ("We take turns looking at the sky through a telescope, and through a microscope at the cut on Jane's arm") to the borderline snarky ("Bernadette has to go home early"). The illustrations are a rush of sketch and shape and texture, not unlike the work of Oliver Jeffers, although my favorite bit is a calm drawing of a game of hide-and-seek, with not a single child visible. This party of a book gives us an unsettling truth: one reason Marshall becomes appealing is that he has lots of great stuff. How I wish that didn't ring true. Peter Brown's new book comes on very strong, which is appropriate because his heroine, a bear named Lucy who previously explored the boundaries of love and captivity in "Children Make Terrible Pets," is a lot to handle. Look at her on the cover, with a manic grin, shouting the title in a pink speech bubble: "You Will Be My Friend!" (One is tempted to read it in a German accent.) Lucy wakes up excited to make a new friend and bounces around the forest in her attempts to win others over; she leaps into a frog pond, scrubs a skunk of its unfriendly smell and squeezes her girth into a rabbit warren. Her efforts begin to wear her out, and finally we see her, in my favorite spread, collapsed by a tree stump, numbly saying "This is hopeless." That's when the flamingo arrives, and Lucy finally makes a friend in the forest by befriending a creature who, um, doesn't live in the forest. The implied moral is "be yourself," but it's not clear why Lucy's friendship with the flamingo works out better than her attempts with the others - something, past all reason, just clicks. I click with this book. Brown has pushed his style past its smoother beginnings, in books like "Chowder" and "Flight of the Dodo," into a homemade hybrid of pencil and construction paper and even wood. Who knows how he does it, really? The appeal of "You Will Be My Friend!" is as deep a mystery as friendship, but I'm not interested in delving into its mysteries. I just want to take it to lunch. In Peter Brown's "You Will Be My Friend!," Lucy takes matters into her own hands as she bounces around the forest with one goal in mind. The precocious title character of David Mackintosh's "Marshall Armstrong Is New to Our School" is often misunderstood. Daniel Handler writes children's books under the name Lemony Snicket.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 21, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review
Lucy, an energetic, determined cub, sets off one morning to make a new pal. Although she traverses the forest with hopes and dreams for new acquaintances, she is repeatedly rebuffed, as all that unchecked enthusiasm keeps her from fitting in, although she may bond with an egg . . . eventually. The story's resolution feels a bit weak, but the mixed-media art, featuring woodsy cartoon backgrounds, and the omniscient narration (along with Lucy's first-bear word bubbles) combine to make this an even funnier follow-up to Children Make Terrible Pets (2010).--Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Lucy the bear, who adopted a stubborn boy in Brown's Children Make Terrible Pets, tends to come on a little strong. She wakes up with an optimistic plan to find a pal-"the forest is crawling with fun critters. Surely one of them will want to be my friend," she tells her mother-and skips into the woods, wearing a pink tutu and an overeager grin. Brown's panels, framed by ironic wood-grain backdrops, show Lucy's overtures being rejected by a zoo's worth of fauna including a beaver, giraffe, and ostrich. Upon meeting a swarm of bees for "lunch," she runs away dripping with honey and calling, "Sorry I ate your house!" Lucy's only enthusiastic playmates are four human preschoolers, and even she feels overwhelmed by them. Like its predecessor, this outing features an earth-tone palette, pencil illustrations, cut-paper voice bubbles, and hand-lettered display type; Lucy's wilderness is thoroughly domesticated. Brown jokes about enforced companionship, yet doesn't abandon his heroine, acquainting her with a willing ally when things seem their grimmest. Readers won't miss the message that friendship is something that happens in its own time. Ages 3-6. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Lucy, the bear who tried to adopt a boy in Children Make Terrible Pets (Little, Brown, 2010), is on the hunt for a new friend. While she searches the forest, speech bubbles capture her fervent anticipation: "We're going to do cartwheels! And climb trees! And have picnics! And have a dance party!" A frog invites her to play, but Lucy's overzealous belly flop empties out the pond. She dryly comments, "Things didn't work out." Bees invite Lucy to lunch, but she ends up eating their hive. Brown's quirky wood-grain-bordered illustrations show the cub's over-the-top tactics to fit in, from squeezing down a rabbit hole to gnawing tree trunks beside a beaver. After all of her overtures are rebuffed, she resorts to threats: "Come back here and have fun with me!" "You won't get any snacks unless you start liking me RIGHT NOW." When Lucy finally relaxes her approach, a flamingo pal comes her way. Readers will be won over by this witty, slapstick story of friendship found.-Linda Ludke, London Public Library, Ontario, Canada (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Lucy, the overly enthusiastic, tutu-clad bear from Children Make Terrible Pets tries to make a new friend. Forcing herself upon each critter, she insists, "Start liking me RIGHT NOW." It's not until Lucy believes all hope is lost that a new pal appears. Playful mixed-media illustrations include comical characters and word balloons that extend the humor (e.g., Lucy to an egg: "I can wait"). (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Finding a friend is less a matter of sheer will than quiet acceptance in this charming new work.Picture-book heroines are rarely quite as irrepressible as Lucy the tutu-and-bowclad bear fromChildren Make Terrible Pets(2010). Now a follow-up tackles the difficult task precocious children face when seeking out companionship. Fueled more by enthusiasm than sense, Lucy informs her mother that on this day she is going to find herself a brand-new friend. Yet while her intentions are good, Lucy's befriending techniques are a bit brash for the woodland creatures she encounters. Even threats don't work, so Lucy declares her task hopeless, until another bow-wearing animal fulfills Lucy's greatest wishes. Brown has pinpointed the problems some kids face in befriending their fellows, though few would come on as strong as his heroine. The language is the real lure here, with Lucy's single-mindedness best illustrated when she informs an egg, "You WILL be my friend! I can wait." Handlettered speech balloons and wood borders give the book a rustic but friendly feel, with endpapers that should not be missed.While many friendship stories verge on twee, this title eschews the cute and allows kids to both identify with and pity Lucy's struggle to find her own bosom companion.(Picture book. 4-8)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
