MAKING A FRIEND

While making things isn’t the same as making friends, sometimes one can lead to the other.

Beaver is very good at the former—his lodge is a cabin with a slide attached—but not the latter. Friend’s digital illustrations show the many ways Beaver’s attempts at friendship go wrong, and readers will empathize with the poor guy (and with the porcupine he presents with balloons on their birthday!). So when snow starts falling, Beaver endeavors to make his own friend. When Raccoon stops by, curious, they point out, “it takes two to make a friend.” Beaver’s crestfallen until Raccoon does the math. The two cooperate marvelously, but the completed friend seems cold and doesn’t interact with either of them. Can’t they find someone to play with? It finally dawns on Beaver that he already has. Friend’s anthropomorphic animals are adorable, and readers will have no trouble telling how they are feeling.

A sure recipe for making a friend…real or snow.