About This Book:
By the author of Click, Clack, Moo and the illustrator of The Lost House, here is an utterly endearing story about venturing out of your comfort zone and overcoming anxiety to help a friend.
Lawrence stays close to home because “out there” is too big and loud. Sophia stays high up in the tree branches because “down there” is too dark and dangerous. When they meet and become friends, they find ways to enjoy each other’s company without leaving their own safe spots . . . until a storm comes, and both are so worried about the other that they are finally able to take a huge, scary leap into the unknown. Together they feel brave, and the future is suddenly a lot more interesting.
*Review Contributed By Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*
Friends Help Us Grow
The art style of this is interesting; it has a bit of a European feel to it, perhaps because of Lawrence’s constant hat, vest, and ankle length pants. It’s a colored pencil or chalk pastel style, with elements like wispy pine branches and orange and white stripes that show up on the walls in the house and on Lawrence’s projects. Most of this is set in the back yard, which makes this feel both cozy and outdoordy.
Young readers need to see a variety of friendships on the page so that they can navigate their own friendships more effectively. This is a good choice to shown the dynamics of interpersonal relationships to the preschool set along with books like Jarvis’ Bear and Bird, Greenwald’s The Rescues Finding Home, Jones’ Love is in the Little Things, and Sorosiak and Holzwarth’s Everywhere with You (which also has a storm scene!).
