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The Friendly Book: 07/10/24
The Friendly Book by Margaret Wise Brown, Garth Williams (Illustrator) (1954) is on a very short list of all time favorite picture books. I have a copy that was given to me by my Uncle Ross when I was very young. I've had it read to me and read it myself more times than I can count. It's a plot free info dump on things the unnamed narrator likes. Are these things Margaret Wise Brown liked or things someone close to her liked? Or someone she knew? Who knows! The book has the same general appeal as One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss (1960). Except, it predates Seuss's work by six years. It's also grounded in reality, taking joy in list making and the minutiae of life. Save for the last page, the book is just a series of loosely rhyming lists of things liked. There's a page devoted to trains. A page for boats. A page to cars. And so forth. Each of these lists is then brought to life by Garth Williams's illustrations. He uses people and animals to build intricate scenes of varying scales similar to Richard Scarry's books. Five stars Comments (0)
1997-2025 Sarah Sammis |
