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  • Rita & Ralph's Rotten Day by Carmen Agra Deedy
  • Natalie Berglind
Deedy, Carmen Agra Rita & Ralph's Rotten Day; illus. by Pete Oswald. Scholastic,
2020 [48p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-338-21638-7 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-338-59927-5 $10.99
Reviewed from galleys R 4-7 yrs

Rita and Ralph have a daily ritual: they meet up under the apple tree exactly between their two houses, separated by a series of hills, and "high-five, pinkie-shake, do a cha-cha-cha, play zombie tag, and make daisy chains." When they try out a new game, Ralph accidentally hurts Rita, and they run their separate ways without resolving the issue. Ralph wants to apologize to Rita, but with twice the commute over twice the hills to get to her house, he's angry when he arrives and his apology is ingenuine; Rita wants to apologize to Ralph to resume their friendship but encounters the same problem. Overnight, the friends miss each other's company, and the next day they have the same idea and meet under the apple tree to apologize. It's a sincere and sympathetic but unsentimental treatment of a challenging behavior for youngsters—the admission of wrongdoing and the repair of friendship—told with a lilting cadence by noted storyteller Deedy. Oswald's digital gouache imitation deftly depicts the cheery hills (much more pleasing to look at than traverse) and Rita's humble brown house contrasts with Ralph's quirky pink-and-blue house; Rita and Ralph have enlarged heads with giant bodies and exaggerated eyebrows that convey their shifting emotions. Kids can glean a lot from Rita and Ralph: miscommunication is an easy, inevitable occurrence between friends, and though making up is much more difficult, it's always worth a shot, and accountability goes a long way when making amends. A corresponding hand game, "Mr. Wiggle & Mr. Waggle," complete with diagrams, accompanies the text.

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