VERY BEST (ALMOST) FRIENDS
edited by Paul B. Janeczko & illustrated by Christine Davenier
This great anthology focuses on all types friendship—from pets to rivals to soulmates. The poems range from Walter Dean Myers’s touching “Friendship” to X.J. Kennedy’s humorous “My Stupid Parakeet Named After You” to Naomi Shihab Nye’s poignant “I Still Have Everything You Gave Me.” Davenier’s delightful watercolor characters have all the verve of Quentin Blake’s work, fitting the many moods of the poems that whisper, stalk, tumble, contemplate, and joke through these pages. (Poetry. 8-12)