A WEEK IN THE LIFE OF BEST FRIENDS

by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 9, 1986

The long title-story poem is accompanied by eight briefer ones in this slim, attractive collection by a favorite contemporary poet. Isabelle and ""I"" are in every way best friends till a brief misunderstanding: Isabelle is assigned to make the new girl in class feel at home and does it too convincingly; but by the time Monday rolls around again, "". . .we are still best friends."" Other poems explore the death of a dog, the unlikelihood of friendship with a tree (Shel Silverstein take note), and a nifty vignette in which a mother points out that we are not friends of bees, since we take their honey, whereupon her small son befriends a bee by sharing his breakfast jam. Usually without obvious formal patterns, de Regniers' verse is deceptively unassuming. It's full of rhymes, false rhymes, subtle echoes of sound and cadence and sudden illuminations of sense. Best read aloud, this volume will also be enjoyed for its serenely open format and delicately unobtrusive line drawings, which nearly catch the body language of children in harmony with one another.

Pub Date: Nov. 9, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION