Louise and Andie

May 2, 2016
In this companion to Louise Loves Art (2014), Louise strikes up a friendship with her new neighbor, a girl named Andie. They both love to draw, but after a marathon art-making session, the girls realize that they have “artistic differences,” which result in a torn drawing and hurt feelings. Light’s vivid cartooning sets up a distinct visual contrast between the girls, with Louise’s red eyeglasses offset by the indigo accents of Andie’s sunglasses and mod-decorated home. Louise’s younger brother, Art, and the girls’ pets provide comedic background moments in a good-natured story about expanding one’s personal and artistic horizons. Ages 4–8. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown.

March 15, 2016
Louise and Art are back, bright-eyed and excited about their new neighbor. Louise clutches her drawing papers and bursts with hope that the new kid next door loves art as much as she does. Her little brother, Art (whose name's affectionate double meaning was featured in Louise Loves Art, 2014), is eager too. They're in luck: Andie, despite half-mast eyelids implying reticence or blase posturing in contrast to Louise's and Art's wide-eyed earnestness, is an artist as well. Details such as pop-art dog portraits and a pyramid of Campbell's soup cans invoking retro advertisements create energy and spark, even for readers who don't know the references. The three pink-skinned kids gleefully draw and paint together, squabble, separate, and ultimately resolve the dispute with, fittingly, more art. Their round-framed eyeglasses--Louise wears red frames with clear glass, while Andie wears black frames with blue glass--figure heavily in the artistic solution to their fight. Light uses black pencils and mostly red, blue, and gray digital coloring in her inventively composed spreads. In one, 13 scenes of the characters scatter across a double-page spread, each on its own piece of drawing paper. In another, readers have a (roughly) floor's-eye view of the girls propped upside down, heads on the floor, legs on the bed, while Art dangles beside them. Visually sophisticated in a totally accessible way. (Picture book. 3-6)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2016

PreS-Gr 2-Louise and her younger brother Art are excited to meet their new neighbor. Louise gathers all of her art supplies and knocks on the door. "Do you like art?" she asks. Andie, who could pass for Andy Warhol's kid sister, replies, "Like art? I LOVE it!" The two girls spend the day happily drawing together until one of their pictures is accidentally ripped in half. Neither girl wants their friendship to come to an end over artistic differences, so they find a way to turn a mistake into a masterpiece, something all good artists know how to do. The pencil and digital illustrations reference Warhol's style of art, and the black cat from Light's Louise Loves Art befriends the neighbor's unusual-looking dog, Bacon. VERDICT This is a clever and fun story about making and mending a friendship through artwork, perfect for one-on-one reading or sharing at storytime.-Tanya Boudreau, Cold Lake Public Library, AB, Canada

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.