My Friends

Influenced by Dick Bruna and Lucy Cousins, this new author/illustrator is one to watch. His simple pictures and original ideas flow together beautifully, and the theme of friendship is topical. Told in the first person, the ‘writer’ introduces himself with a simple ‘hello’ and then proceeds to tell us about each of his friends. There is Messy, who is quiet and doesn’t talk much; Ezza loves to look at clouds; Olga likes to listen to music; and Lina ‘invents things’. There are many, many more friends to meet, and all of them are special because (we are told) our author likes to do the same things they enjoy when he is with them. He also has an imaginary friend, Klaus: ‘it’s good to have an imaginary friend because they can be with you whenever you need them.’ His friends are all blobby characters, full of colour and fun, and in the very end of the story we find that our author also likes sometimes to be by himself. On the final page, we see a portrait of the author, a lovely dog, who asks us to tell him about our friends.

Lots to look at, lots to talk about, and lots to enjoy.