FRIENDS

The time-honored odd-couple pairing of predator and prey does a star turn in this sweet tale of friendship.

The protagonists here are Cat the cat and Bubble the goldfish. Cat knows he has a good life, as he can wander the big city whenever he pleases. His best friend Bubble, however, is confined to his little tank, swimming round and round and sighing. One day, Cat locates a transparent bucket and, after convincing his friend to jump in, shows him potential new homes: increasingly larger bodies of water in the form of ponds, rivers and the ocean. Offering the fish freedom, Cat is surprised when Bubble declines, pointing out that while there is a wide world out there, here he has a friend. The two then spend their days exploring their own little world, “From here… / ...to the rainbow’s end.”  Foreman’s singular watercolors give his images an inner glow that shines brightest in the artist’s glorious two-page panoramas. In terms of the characters themselves, readers will have little difficulty believing in their friendship, food chain or no food chain. More to the point, here's a nice lesson of finding the wide world close to home.

A warm, welcoming book with a taste and tone of its very own.