We had a HUGE crowd this week, lots of boys, lots of energy. The only one that was a bit of a mismatch was Chopsticks, but a parent wanted to check it out afterwards, so that's a win regardless.
Alex and Lulu: Two of a Kind
Lorena Siminovich
ISBN: 9780763644239
Block-prints and naive blocky-shaped characters.
Alex is a stereotypical boy dog, and Lulu is a stereotypical girl cat. They are good friends, but Alex begins to think about all the ways they are different, and worries that they can't be friends because they are opposites. Lulu reassures him that friends are often better when they have some differences, because that makes play and time spent together the richer. Other than wishing that either Alex or Lulu wasn't majority white, and that they weren't so super-duper stereotypically boy/girl in their interests, this is a very nice calm sweet reminder that friends can and do have interests that are different.
The Story of Fish & Snail
Deborah Freedman
ISBN: 9780670784899
Book-within-a-book, where Fish and Snail live inside a picture book, and Fish explores inside other picture books. Watercolors against a greyscale background.
Fish is happy being with Snail in their calm book, but Fish does like going out into other stories and bringing the tales back to Snail (who is quite happy to stay and play calm friendly games in their own peaceful book, thank you very much.) Fish and Snail get into it when Fish wants Snail to come see an interesting (scary) book in person, and Snail gets frightened and lashes out. But when Fish swims off into another story, Snail realizes being alone is no fun, and bravely goes out into the unfamiliar book to find Fish. So pretty, so interesting, and a little mind-bending with the background of book-hopping.
Chopsticks
Amy Krause Rosenthal, illustrated by Scott Magoon
ISBN: 9781423107965
(SC Picture Book Award: 2013-2014 school year)
Visual puns all over the place, and asides from background characters/utensils.
Chopsticks do everything together, until an advance training exercise (skewering asparagus) leaves one man down with a broken tip. Dr. Glue says he'll be right as rain in no time, but meanwhile, his buddy is driving him nuts trying to keep him company. So the wounded stick sends his hale and hearty friend out into the world alone, to discover that he can have fun alone (playing soccer, baking, playing dress-up) and come back with interesting stories to tell his injured friend. The story ends with both back upright and healthy, able to work as friends either together or apart.
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