  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 09/01/2013 PreS-Gr 2—A boy describes his devoted affection for a friend with whom he plays, dances, and shares secrets. Then she moves away, and he is all alone. He misses her terribly and vows to find her. Readers will cheer his bravery as he crosses a swift river, climbs over a steep mountain, and travels through a dewy meadow and shadowy forest to find her. Ultimately, he stumbles across a flower garden. With a bouquet in hand, he finds his friend, reunites with her and (playfully) marries her. Both are humorously shown in oversize adult apparel, holding hands. The concluding page shows a scanned photograph, taken in 1932, of the author and a long-lost friend at age three. This story of love and determination is illustrated with Carle's extraordinary signature artwork. Layers of tissue paper and acrylic paint create a unique blend of colorful images. For anyone who would cross rivers and scale mountains for a beloved friend, this warmhearted story will create an emotional response. Young readers will learn the value of friendship and its many challenges.—Krista Welz, The North Bergen Public Library, NJ - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 09/01/2013 A boy’s best friend moves away, but he is determined to find her. After swimming across a wide river, he falls asleep under the stars. He walks across a broad meadow and through the rain. He falls asleep and dreams of floating on a cloud. Awakening in a deep forest, the frightened boy runs until he reaches a garden, where he gathers flowers and gives them to . . . his friend. They play together. They get married. It’s an odd, dreamlike story for a picture book, yet the artwork is strong and unmistakably Carle’s, created with painted tissue papers, usually as collage elements. The children appear only in the book’s beginning and ending sections; in between, seven double-page spreads illustrate the story of the boy’s travels, without any human figures. Often dynamic and quite beautiful, these colorful illustrations of the river, the meadow, and so on are abstract in style and show up well from a distance. A picture-book tribute to the strength of childhood friendships. - Copyright 2013 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 12/01/2013 A little boy and little girl are best friends, until the girl moves away. The boy decides to look for her, swimming a river, climbing a mountain, crossing a meadow, and so on until he finds her: “Together they played and ran and danced and told each other secrets . . . and got married.” The simplicity and imagination of this story make it accessible for young children, and there’s an appealing pattern to the different sound effects on each spread of the boy’s journey (“Then all of a sudden, it began to rain. Splish! Splash! He had to dash through the falling drops”). The overall voyage is contrived, however, and the abrupt wedding is an odd and unnecessary conclusion. Carle’s trademark painted tissue-paper collage is bold and bright, and the childlike compositions and simple painting techniques offer possibilities for imitation to youngsters, while the large, crisp illustrations will be easy to share with a large group. An author’s note explains the inspiration for the story: Carle left behind a dear female friend when he moved from the U.S. to Germany at age six, and that he often wonders what became of her. Despite its shortcomings, this is a pleasant look at the power of childhood friendship; it might work well in a preschool storytime about friends or one focused on the works of Eric Carle. JH - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
 |