Friends

Recommended Grades K-3.  It is a deep wish in the human imagination that animals develop the same emotions and relationships that humans do.  Though we know it is a "dog eat dog" world out there, we still desire compassion and connection from our animal friends.  Catherine Thimmesh makes this dream a reality in her narrated photo essay, Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships (Houghton Mifflin, 2011).  Thimmesh brings together a series of touching photographs of cross-species companions; an orangutan and her pet cat, a piglet and baby lion raised together in Namibia, among others.  The pictures are accompanied by a poem about friendship, using language accessible to younger readings.  Each picture is also accompanied by an in-depth paragraph giving the background of the photograph, meant to be shared with older readers.  Though Thimmesh shows us a variety of heartwarming animal alliances, she is very honest that some of these pals are not pals for life.  She does not sugarcoat the fact that some animals use each other for survival and nothing more, while showing how some animals have formed genuine attachments.  Recommended, ****

A Blues Ensemble For the Birds

Recommended grades K-3.  Jan Huling brings us a New Orleans flavored fable with Ol' Bloo's Boogie Woogie Band and Blues Ensemble ( Peachtree, 2011).  Huling gives Grimms' Musicians of Bremin an American feel.   In this picture book, Ol' Bloo, a hard-working Donkey, narrowly escapes death when his owners threaten to "end his misery" after a lifetime of back-breaking service.  Instead of sitting by to face his demise, Ol' Bloo makes a run for it, planning on furthering his musical career in New Orleans.  Along the way, Ol' Bloo encounters other musically inclined animals with rough stories of their own, and just like Dorothy on her way down the Yellow Brick Road, Ol' Bloo invites these animals to share in his dreams.  Illustrations by Henri Sørensen contribute the the folk feel of the story, combining rich oil paintings in warm hues with black sillouhettes of the animals incorporated with the text.  The silhouette have the feel of shadow puppets onstage in a children's theater.  Ol' Bloo's story offers young readers a glimpse into the mythic South, and the reader can't help but root for his Boogie Woogie Band, though they would surely be ghastly to the human ear.  Recommended, ***