Stars, and: Gus Makes a Friend (review)

See this month's Big Picture, p. 189, for review.

There's both truth and a play on words in the title of this story about Gus, a rhinoceros, who deals with the lack of a playmate by going out in the snow to make one . . . literally. After building the basics of his snowman he's joined by Ned, a dopey-looking giraffe, and the two boys have a splendid time polishing and accessorizing their creation, ending finally with a nice lunch of soup (while Mom goes out to fetch Ned's glasses back from the snowman). This super-slim volume includes one three-to-five word sentence per page, lots of repetition, and plenty of visual support for novice readers. The end's a little clunky, though, and youngsters may not get the subtextual joke about Gus' making a friend of Ned as he makes a snowman friend. Remkiewicz's watercolor-and-pencil illustrations employ a vivid mosaic of colored elements, with painted and wallpapered walls filling the house and cheery multicolored clothing popping against the snowdrifts and blue skies. There is plenty of appeal in snowy-day friendship stories, and the simple format guarantees lots of success for newbies.