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Friends
Author:
Carle, Eric
Illustrator:
Carle, Eric
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Class:
Easy
Age: 3-6
Language: English
Descriptors: Picture Book
Demand: Average
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LC: PZ7.C214
Grade: P-1
Print Run: 300000
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ISBN-13: 9780399165337
LCCN: 2012048850
Imprint: Philomel
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Pub Date: 11/19/2013
Availability: Available
List: $18.99
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Hardcover Reinforced
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Physical Description:
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1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations ; 32 cm
H 12.25",
W 9.44",
D 0.37",
1.1 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's For Youth Interest Titles
Brodart's For Youth Interest: Popular
Brodart's Fresh Reads for Kids TIPS Selections
Brodart's Insight Catalog: Children
Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles
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Bibliographies:
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Children's Core Collection, 22nd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 23rd ed.
Children's Core Collection, 24th ed.
New York Times Bestsellers List
New York Times Bestsellers: Children's Picture Books
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Awards:
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Children's Choices Reading List
Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
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Starred Reviews:
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TIPS Subjects:
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Friendship
Travel/Tourism
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Friendship
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Themes / Emotions & Feelings
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LC Subjects:
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Friendship, Fiction
Friendship, Juvenile fiction
Voyages and travels, Fiction
Voyages and travels, Juvenile fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Friendship, Fiction
Voyages and travels, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
1.6
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Points: 0.5
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Juvenile Titles | 10/01/2013 |
| Rough currents and tall mountains are no match for a boy who desperately wants to find the playmate who moved away. Join the boy as he overcomes numerous obstacles on his way back to the friend who never should have left. 32pp., Color Ill. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 11/01/2013 |
| Ages 3-5. Fans of Eric Carle won't want to miss his latest offering, a tribute to friendship based on one of the author's own childhood experiences. As the book opens, we see two friends playing together happily. By the next spread, however, the boy is sad. His friend has moved away. He takes a deep breath, counts to 10 and heads out to find her. He swims a wide, cold river under a starry sky. He scales a steep mountain. He makes his way through the tall, damp grasses of a meadow. On and on he journeys: Rain, fatigue and dark shadows won't stop him. Eventually, he finds her, giving her the same bouquet of flowers featured on the book's title page. "I knew you would come," she says. The children are featured only on the first couple of spreads, as well as the last one. All the brightly colored pages in between feature Carle's signature broad brush strokes, very texturized paper tissue collages and abstract renderings, pared down to their essentials. The meadow is merely a series of thick, green brush strokes. The river is composed of large, wavy lines in various shades of blues and greens, undulating across the page. There's no boy in sight, as if to emphasize the enormity of the journey--or perhaps to put readers into the boy's own shoes. On a closing spread, Carle shares a childhood photo of a friend, now lost to him, but on the dust jacket, we read that his wife, Bobbie, was inspiration for the book as well. Friends is a sweet story of devotion for the youngest of readers. Julie Danielson. 32pg. BOOKPAGE, c2013. |
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| Booklist | 09/01/2013 |
| Preschool-Kindergarten. A boy's best friend moves away, but he is determined to find her. After swimming across a wide river, he falls asleep under the stars. He walks across a broad meadow and through the rain. He falls asleep and dreams of floating on a cloud. Awakening in a deep forest, the frightened boy runs until he reaches a garden, where he gathers flowers and gives them to . . . his friend. They play together. They get married. It's an odd, dreamlike story for a picture book, yet the artwork is strong and unmistakably Carle's, created with painted tissue papers, usually as collage elements. The children appear only in the book's beginning and ending sections; in between, seven double-page spreads illustrate the story of the boy's travels, without any human figures. Often dynamic and quite beautiful, these colorful illustrations of the river, the meadow, and so on are abstract in style and show up well from a distance. A picture-book tribute to the strength of childhood friendships. Phelan, Carolyn. 32p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2013. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 12/01/2013 |
| Ad. 3-5 yrs. A little boy and little girl are best friends, until the girl moves away. The boy decides to look for her, swimming a river, climbing a mountain, crossing a meadow, and so on until he finds her: "Together they played and ran and danced and told each other secrets . . . and got married." The simplicity and imagination of this story make it accessible for young children, and there's an appealing pattern to the different sound effects on each spread of the boy's journey ("Then all of a sudden, it began to rain. Splish! Splash! He had to dash through the falling drops"). The overall voyage is contrived, however, and the abrupt wedding is an odd and unnecessary conclusion. Carle's trademark painted tissue-paper collage is bold and bright, and the childlike compositions and simple painting techniques offer possibilities for imitation to youngsters, while the large, crisp illustrations will be easy to share with a large group. An author's note explains the inspiration for the story: Carle left behind a dear female friend when he moved from the U.S. to Germany at age six, and that he often wonders what became of her. Despite its shortcomings, this is a pleasant look at the power of childhood friendship; it might work well in a preschool storytime about friends or one focused on the works of Eric Carle. JH. 26p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2013. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2014 |
| 4. When friends are separated because one moves away, the boy travels through fields, clouds, forest, and flowers to find the girl and marry her. The ending may not resonate with children, but the journey is beautifully conveyed through Carle's text and art. The author's note makes this less a children's book than an adult's wish fulfillment. mvk. 32pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2014. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 09/15/2013 |
| Carle revisits the timeless topic that he explored with Kazuo Iwamura in the bilingual animal journey Where Are You Going? To See My Friend! (2001); this time, a boy yearns for the girl who moved away. Readers first see the pair frolicking in small vignettes against a white background. When the girl departs, the protagonist counts to 10 before disappearing into glorious spreads. The hop-along narrative conjures up We're Going on a Bear Hunt: "The boy landed in a broad meadow. It was a hot day. The grass was dewy, damp and cool...A-h-h-h." Six additional double-page spreads depict a river, a star-filled sky, a mountain, a rainstorm, a forest and clouds. While familiar collage images dominate some scenes, suggestive abstract paintings comprise others. The forest is a dense world, with layers of liquid green and black on a distant yellow. The river creates a different mood with casual swirls of brightly lit blues and greens. A happy reunion leads to a dress-up marriage; in a slightly disorienting turn-of-the-page segue, Carle provides a photo of his 6-year-old self and the never-seen-again friend who inspired the story. Some may see this as an abrupt change, a jolt of reality after the fantasy ending. Nevertheless, children will identify with the longing to be with distant loved ones and will revel in the sheer joy of Carle's forms, colors and textures. (Picture book. 3-6). 32pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2013. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 09/30/2013 |
| Ages 3-5. A boy and a girl are fast friends: "Together they played and ran and danced and told each other secrets." When she moves away, the boy "took a deep breath, counted to ten," and sets out on an arduous journey to reunite with her. Using the hand-painted tissue paper collages that have been his signature for nearly five decades, Carle (The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse) composes the core of the book impressionistically, employing the boy's literal and emotional viewpoints (while leaving the boy himself entirely unseen) as he crosses a wide river and a tall mountain, sleeps beneath skies filled with stars and clouds, and tries to remain steadfast in a forest, where "Dark shadows danced around him. E-e-e-k!" The images are beautiful and evocative, but there may not be enough in this story to hold every reader. Although the boy reappears in the final pages (he emerges from a flower garden bearing a bouquet for the girl, whom he marries), very young readers may wonder where he went, while older ones may yearn to see him in action. (Nov.). 32p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2013. |
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| School Library Journal | 09/01/2013 |
| PreS-Gr 2. A boy describes his devoted affection for a friend with whom he plays, dances, and shares secrets. Then she moves away, and he is all alone. He misses her terribly and vows to find her. Readers will cheer his bravery as he crosses a swift river, climbs over a steep mountain, and travels through a dewy meadow and shadowy forest to find her. Ultimately, he stumbles across a flower garden. With a bouquet in hand, he finds his friend, reunites with her and (playfully) marries her. Both are humorously shown in oversize adult apparel, holding hands. The concluding page shows a scanned photograph, taken in 1932, of the author and a long-lost friend at age three. This story of love and determination is illustrated with Carle's extraordinary signature artwork. Layers of tissue paper and acrylic paint create a unique blend of colorful images. For anyone who would cross rivers and scale mountains for a beloved friend, this warmhearted story will create an emotional response. Young readers will learn the value of friendship and its many challenges. Krista Welz, The North Bergen Public Library, NJ. 32p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2013. |
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9780399165337,dl.it[0].title
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