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And the Tide Comes in... by Merryl Alber
The Art of Flying by Judy Hoffman
Ball by Mary Sullivan
A Big Guy Took My Ball! by Mo Willems
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Bluebird by Bob Staake
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Diners, Bowling Alleys, And Trailer Parks by Andrew Hurley
Fullmetal Alchemist 25 by Hiromu Arakawa
I Spy With My Little Eye by Edward Gibbs
The Life of Ty: Penguin Problems by Lauren Myracle
Mean Soup by Betsy Everitt
My Cold Went On Vacation by Molly Rausch
Nothing But the Truth by Avi
One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo
The President Has Been Shot! The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by James L. Swanson
Smells Like Pirate by Suzanne Selfors
There's an Owl in the Shower by Jean Craighead George
They Call Me a Hero: A Memoir of My Youth by Daniel Hernandez
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Transcendental by James Edwin Gunn
Tune: Vanishing Point by Derek Kirk Kim
Water in the Park by Emily Jenkins
The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli
Which Way Back?: Featuring Luna, Chip & Inkie by Michael Mayes
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Comments for One Cool Friend

One Cool Friend: 03/23/15

cover art

One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo is another story of a boy and a penguin. There seem to be an avalanche of these books. They all go like this: child goes on a field trip to an aquarium and for one reason or another ends up bringing a penguin home where he has to hide said penguin from his family.

It's one of many recent books involving someone smuggling a penguin home. Who started this trend? Sure penguins have been popular in children's movies in the last couple decades, but there the penguins are characters, not things to be smuggled home!

Now this takes the clichéd story and gives it a funny twist at the end. For that genre savviness, I'm rating the book above the others I've read. David Small's adorable drawings help too. He gives the boy a rather Buster Keaton-ish flare.

Three stars

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