Olive's Perfect World: A Friendship Story by Jennifer Plecas (review)

"In Olive's perfect world, it was Olive and Emily, friends from the beginning doing everything together, and friends forever." All that changes when Emily starts spending more and more time with Eva; Olive painfully watches as Emily and Eva sign up for ballet lessons together, start matching their outfits, and even come up with a cute nickname for themselves (the Sparkle-Es). Olive yearns for her "perfect world," a place where friendship is not dictated by dance routines and matching clothes, the place she and Emily used to reside comfortably, and her sadness increases as Emily and Eva appear to grow closer and closer. Fortunately, the new girl is not a bad character at all, and when Olive confesses her insecurities to the girls, the three of them are able to find some common ground for their trio. Plecas approaches this familiar theme with a tender hand and a whole lot of compassion; Olive's feelings of sorrow come across with great sincerity in the narrative, and her struggles with self-confidence as a result of the shifting friendship dynamic are thoughtfully executed ("It was starting to feel like Emily and Eva were the real friends and Olive was just . . . plain Olive"). The characters, anthropomorphized cats, are warmly composed in pale pastels, each cat a different color and with different patterning in her fur. The facial expressions and body language, while simple, carry a lot of emotional weight, and young viewers browsing the illustrations would easily be able to follow the shifting dynamics from the visual cues. Themes of inclusion, friendship, and showing kindness to others are all present in the story, making this a great choice for classroom communities or family readalouds.