Some cute, sweet, and slightly off-kilter stories about animal friendships.
Emma Kate
Patricia Polacco
ISBN: 0399244522
The narrator does everything with Emma Kate, and the illustrations cover everything; a rambunctious girl with a bright red dress and pigtails, and a pretty nearly life-size elephant go around doing all sorts of mundane things - going to school, riding bikes, playing sports, even spending time in the hospital for their tonsils to be taken out. At the end, savvy readers (and lookers) won't be TOO surprised when they realize why only one of the characters is in color.
Gaston
Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Christian Robinson
ISBN: 9781442451025
Mrs Poodle is very proud of her four kids: Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, Ohh-La-La, and Gaston, even though Gaston doesn't quite fit the mold. All of them are sweet kids and Gaston especially tries hard and has a sweet attitude. When Mrs Poodle meets Mrs Bulldog at the park with HER four kids, Rocky, Ricky, Bruno, and Antoinette, things become much clearer, but also complicated. The solution is a bit pat (especially for anyone who has dealt with foster or adoption issues) but the sentiment is sound, and everything comes together (literally) in the end.
Elmore
Holly Hobbie
ISBN: 9781524718633
I've been holding on to this book for nearly a year, trying to figure out what angle I wanted to take with the themes in it, and I finally decided just to keep it simple and go with friendship, but there's a lot to unpack in this simple, sweet book about a lonely porcupine who just wants to have some friends, but his needles and spines seem to make things impossible. A kindly uncle and a new perspective (and very open and friendly neighbors) help to smooth things over, and at the end, Elmore has developed his own very particular method of starting friendships.
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