My Friends

May 1, 1990
In this ode to everyday activities and things, a free-spirited girl hops, jumps and kicks her way across the countryside, paying homage to her friends along the way. Like a satellite launched into perpetual motion, the constantly moving child praises--among others--the rooster who taught her to march, the ant who taught her to explore the earth and the teachers who taught her to study. In spare, luminous landscapes, the minute world reveals a special beauty to those still and attentive enough to behold it. The activities depicted are alternately lively and quiet, but the prevailing mood is one of continuous celebration. Gomi's ( Bus Stops ; Where's the Fish? ) meticulous sense of design and careful use of brilliantly colored, highly delineated images imbues the story with a sense of the wonder and delight to be derived from life's simplest--but bountiful--moments. Ages 2-4.

July 1, 1990
PreS -"I learned to . . . from my friend(s) . . ." is the one sentence a young girl repeats on each double-page spread in this simple concept book. The primitive watercolors are, for the most part, bright and attractive against a white backdrop. However, the quality is inconsistent; occasionally dark or poorly defined objects and animals appear, limiting the book's use to the one-on-one situation. The repetitious text quickly becomes tedious, and there is no sign of real movement in any of the characters. Facial expressions are almost nonexistent. Some of the size relationships are inaccurate (rabbit-girl/owl-girl), and a few of the activities the child engages in are unsettling, let alone unrealistic. A good attempt that misses the mark. -Carolyn Vang, Monroe County Library System, Rochester, NY