Review by Booklist Review
Mac and Cheese are, naturally, best pals, and Proimos uses this all-time favorite entrée as inspiration for three hilarious and heartwarming stories of friendship. Cheese thinks Mac is the smartest noodle he knows, and the bespectacled pasta spends his morning impressing Cheese with his smarts. At lunch time, Cheese shows Mac his latest paintings, but the noodle is mystified by Cheese's interpretation of an orange: But it is blue! Oranges are orange.' Not in my painting,' said Cheese. Even though the two rarely see eye to eye and occasionally have trouble communicating, there's one thing they know for certain: There are no two friends who belong together more than we do! Proimos' bold, eye-catching art comically illustrates the silly interactions between the friends. The text is set off nicely by colorful borders and a brightly hued, hand-scrawled font, while the vibrant patches of color and cartoonish, childlike figures add a buoyant atmosphere to the already bubbly story. This cheery friendship tale will likely become a read-aloud favorite.--Lock, Anita Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Right from the get-go it's clear that Mac-a geeky, glasses-wearing noodle-and Cheese, a squat hunk of cheese with a snaggletooth, are meant to share the same camaraderie as Frog and Toad and George and Martha, the friends created, respectively, by the book's dedicatees, Arnold Lobel and James Marshall. In the first of three episodes, Cheese asks Mac some basic questions ("What is the second letter of the alphabet?") and showers Mac with praise when he knows the answers: "You have a big, big brain." (Large orange letters make Cheese's enthusiasm clear.) Cheese, meanwhile, is an artist who paints whatever he likes: oranges that aren't orange, oranges that aren't round, and blobby blobs. "Am I the big red blob?" Mac asks. "No, Mac. You are the yellow smudge. Because you are the brightest of all." Their friendship is a shade snarkier than those of their predecessors ("Oh, no, not them!" Cheese jeers, as they spot P.B. and Jay playing catch in the distance), but their mutual devotion and Proimos's (Waddle! Waddle!) dopey artwork should win this odd couple even more friends. Ages 4-7. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Best friends Mac (a tall, thin, bespectacled piece of pasta) and Cheese (a small orange square of cheddar, perhaps) are spending a day together. On a long walk after breakfast, Cheese asks his brilliant friend a series of challenging questions and is impressed by Mac's knowledge. After lunch, Mac becomes indignant over perceived discrepancies in several paintings that Cheese has created. Cheese uses this opportunity to teach Mac that art can be produced and interpreted in many ways. After dinner, their peaceful evening gazing at the stars is interrupted by the arguing of Oil and Water. Mac and Cheese decide to return to their respective homes, where each contentedly dreams of the other. Broken up into three short stories named after the three meals of the day, this full-size picture book is formatted much like the easy readers of Arnold Lobel and James Marshall. The premises of the tales can be a little zany, yet these are amusing and timeless stories of friendship. The cartoon illustrations, rendered with brush pen on paper and colored in Sketchbook Pro, are bold and engaging. The deeply colored pictures give readers further insight into what is going on in the narrative. VERDICT A silly, fun read-aloud for kids who love cartoons and enjoy a good laugh.-Amy Shepherd, St. Anne's Episcopal School, Middleton, DE © Copyright 2016. 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
Mac (a neck tiewearing noodle with glasses) and Cheese (an orange cube with an ear-flap cap and a snaggletooth) are best friends forever. In three stories -- set just after mealtimes -- their day proceeds, with moments both wacky and tender. Know-it-all Mac tries to school his friend, but ends up learning how to think outside the box.Thick black lines created with brush pen on paper and digitally colored lend the illustrations accessibility and the characters extra personality. The typeface is bold and occasionally colored-in and enlarged, adding emphasis to dialogue; the text is wordy but entertaining. Although the gags rely heavily on puns and the absurd, characters interactions are sincere. Appearances by culinary pairs such as P.B. and Jay, Oil and Water, and Salt and Salt add another layer of humor to this jocular story that may appeal to fans of Marshalls George and Martha (rev. 8/72) or Scieszka and Smiths Cowboy and Octopus (rev. 9/07). elisa gall(c) Copyright 2016. 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
Although their names suggest that theyre an obvious pair, Mac and Cheese are an odd couple through and through.Anthropomorphic Cheese is an artistic fellow who thinks outside of the box, while Mac (a similarly anthropomorphic piece of macaroni) is something of an intellectual. Their differences cause them to have some misunderstandings in the three short stories (Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner, natch) that make up this book, but unlike Oil and Water, who show up in the last story, they are steadfast friends. The inked and digitally colored cartoon illustrations add a lot of humor to the stories, which helps readers along when the text falters due to weak story resolutions and details that dont always make sense. Why, for example, do two saltshakers, Salt and Salt,nbsp;show up in the second story instead of Salt and Pepper? Or why is Cheese grinning happily when he spies P.B. and Jay and says Oh no, NOT THEM!? The dedication is to James Marshall and Arnold Lobel, whose odd-couple friends George and Martha and Frog and Toad, respectively, surely inspired Proimos work and the very structure of this offering; but their influence doesnt translate into a picture book that lives up to the standards they set. Needs more flavor. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
