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FRIENDLY DAY by Mij Kelly

FRIENDLY DAY

by Mij Kelly ; illustrated by Charles Fuge

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4380-0345-0
Publisher: Barron's

Vivacious illustrations carry this unlikely tale of a captured mouse’s ploy that inspires three predatory animals to wage peace.

When Cat nabs Mouse by the tail, the quick-thinking rodent immediately tells him it’s Friendly Day: “a day for sharing, a day for caring, / when everyone is nice, // when Frog reads Snail a fairy tale / and cats do NOT eat mice.” So eloquent is the mouse that the dazzled feline marches off to persuade Dog and a less credulous but tenderhearted Bear to join paws and set out to make the holiday a real one. Expanding the central cast into a burgeoning gallery of wild creatures from all over, Fuge illustrates Kelly’s bouncy rhymes with a series of harmonious gatherings. These range from the aforementioned frog and snail to a tiger lounging familiarly against a (knitting) rhino, a fox serenading dancing geese, baboons handing out balloons and a cow pouring medicine for a bedridden crocodile. All are expressively posed and rendered in sharp detail (with occasional anthropomorphic tweaks) and with fond smiles.

“It is a lovely thought,” opines Bear, “to think that we could ever be, / as kindly as we ought.” Impossible to disagree.

(Picture book. 6-8)