Even Better than Sprinkles: A Story About Best Friends, by Linda Skeers & Heather Fox, (June 2024, Random House Studio), $18.99, ISBN: 9780593705513
Ages 4-7
What makes a best friend – and what happens when that friendship is in trouble – forms the foundation of this relatable and charming story. Being a best friend means a lot of things: dressing up as a unicorn together (even when one person has to be the decidedly non-magical back of the unicorn); playing knight and dragon; even naming your favorite goldfish after your friend. Two friends illustrate these magical moments until one “accidentally-on-purpose” blows out the candles on her friend’s birthday cake before the birthday girl can make her wish, leading to a terrible split that can only be repaired with an apology. Skeers describes friendship in wonderful ways that kids will immediately understand, with phrases like, “Friendship feels like being hugged by a blanket right out of the dryer”. Fox’s digital illustrations are bright; characters are a white-skinned girl with curly red hair and a brown-skinned girl with top-knot bun, and they play joyfully together until the crisis occurs. Then, as Skeers notes, friendship feels like “being hugged by a porcupine while sitting on a cactus”; Fox shows the girls living their lives separately, sadly, until an apology card with three kinds of glitter and a lot of glue reunite the two. Themes of sharing, apologizing, and forgiveness will appeal to kids and adults alike.
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