Do You Want to Be My Friend?

From Publishers Weekly
Mice, a rottweiler, an arachnid and a few other assorted critters make sturdy reappearances in five board book versions of picture books. In Ellen Stoll Walsh's Mouse Paint, "three white mice on a white piece of paper" enjoy a colorful romp, while in Walsh's Mouse Count a similar gaggle narrowly escapes being served for dinner (Harcourt/Red Wagon, $6 each, 28p, ages 1-3 ISBN 0-15-200265-0; -200266-9 Sept.). Yet another mouse searches the animal kingdom for companionship-and finds an unexpected respondent-in Eric Carle's Do You Want to Be My Friend? (HarperFestival, $6.95, 32p, ages 2-6, ISBN 0-694-00709-9 Sept.). The rewards of industriousness are celebrated in a second Carle title, The Very Busy Spider; its embossed web brings a tactile dimension to his familiar collage artwork (Philomel, $9.95, 26p, ages 2-up ISBN 0-399-22919-1 Aug.). Finally, the canine in question is Alexandra Day's beloved Carl, who takes charge of a crew of toddlers in Carl Goes to Day Care (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $5.95, ages 1-3 ISBN 0-374-31145-5 Sept.).Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


"Each page of this ingenious, all but wordless picture book affords surprise, suspense, and repeated pleasure for the viewer."

Book Description

"Do you want to be my friend?" asks a little mouse of a horse, a peacock, an alligator, and others in this charming story, now available as a sturdy board book.

ANNOTATION

A mouse searches everywhere for a friend.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Do you want to be my friend? asks the little mouse, and hopefully follows a tail, finding at the end of it a rather unfriendly horse. But there's another tail, and another, and a strange, long, green one, too, that follows the mouse on his quest for a friend.

Each page of this ingenious picture book contains a surprise. Its only text is on the first page, but the exciting pursuit of a friend for the little mouse lends itself to improvisation by both the reader and the young child — another brilliant idea from Eric Carle, the creator of The Secret Birthday Message and The Mixed-Up Chameleon.

Notable Children's Books of 1971 (ALA)
Children's Books of 1971 (Library of Congress)
Honor Book, Book World Spring Book Festival 1971

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Mice, a rottweiler, an arachnid and a few other assorted critters make sturdy reappearances in five board book versions of picture books. In Ellen Stoll Walsh's Mouse Paint, ``three white mice on a white piece of paper" enjoy a colorful romp, while in Walsh's Mouse Count a similar gaggle narrowly escapes being served for dinner (Harcourt/Red Wagon, $6 each, 28p, ages 1-3 ISBN 0-15-200265-0; -200266-9 Sept.). Yet another mouse searches the animal kingdom for companionship-and finds an unexpected respondent-in Eric Carle's Do You Want to Be My Friend? (HarperFestival, $6.95, 32p, ages 2-6, ISBN 0-694-00709-9 Sept.). The rewards of industriousness are celebrated in a second Carle title, The Very Busy Spider; its embossed web brings a tactile dimension to his familiar collage artwork (Philomel, $9.95, 26p, ages 2-up ISBN 0-399-22919-1 Aug.). Finally, the canine in question is Alexandra Day's beloved Carl, who takes charge of a crew of toddlers in Carl Goes to Day Care (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $5.95, ages 1-3 ISBN 0-374-31145-5 Sept.).

Children's Literature - Marilyn Courtot

This is an oversized board book with very sturdy pages. Carle's trademark collages really stand out on the shiny white pages of this new edition of his almost wordless story. Little mouse asks several creatures if they want to be his friend, and when he finally meets another mouse, he finds a friend. Watch for the snake in the grass. 1995 (orig.

Children's Literature - Susie Wilde