So Much in Common

Two very different characters with nothing in common but a backyard fence, Philomena Midge and Horace Abercrombie manage to discover the unpredictable delights of true friendship.

PreSchool-Grade 3-Philomena Midge is a hippo who likes to cook, collect things, and tend to her lavish garden. Horace Abercrombie is a goat who hates clutter, eats only take-out food, and has a Japanese garden with rocks and tiny bushes. Their friends think that they have nothing in common. But Philomena loves Horace's jokes, and he loves her cooking. For them, that is enough. Then a mishap separates them for a while and they are both miserable-until they tie for first place in the garden-club competition, with two very different flower arrangements, and are reconciled. Although the ending is predictable, the story is a pleasant one, celebrating diversity and tolerance in relationships. The cheerful pen-and-ink and watercolor drawings of the animal village add much to the humor of the story. A charming tale of a friendship in which a few things in common mean so much to two protagonists.
Janet M. Bair, Trumbull Library, CT
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In Jacobs's charming and expressive picture book debut, two neighbors forge a friendship despite their obvious differences. Philomena, a frumpy, jovial hippo, is fond of excess; she's first seen bringing a second-hand lamp and chair into her already cluttered house. Horace, on the other hand, is a prickly, buttoned-down gazelle; he totes a used lamp and chair to the curb, saying, "If it's not essential, out it goes." But Horace enjoys Philomena's cooking, Philomena loves Horace's sense of humor, and the two become inseparable--against the advice of their opinionated, gossipy friends. Jacobs's concise narrative cleverly echoes real-life situations, including a reconciliation after a petty fight. Gorbachev's illustrations, rendered in stippled, jerky ink lines and subdued watercolor hues, bring the characters playfully to life: Philomena's pleasing coquettishness shines through her enthusiastic grin, while starchy Horace's gruff demeanor visibly softens in Philomena's presence. (The artist's only false move is a slight one--his likeness of an "anchovy" pizza comes out as a pepperoni pie.) Memorable. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Philomena Midge and Horace Abercrombie don't look as though they could be friends; the frilly-aproned hippo's cluttered old house is set in a profusion of flowers while the slimly elegant antelope's sleek abode features a spare Japanese garden, and their habits, too, are diverse. Still, Horace likes Philomena's cooking, and she likes his jokes; their rapport is the talk of the other animals until the two have a spat over a comic pratfall involving a bicycle, a pizza, and an umbrella. Smug friends are quick with advice (``You should ignore her from now on''), but a tie for the blue ribbon at a flower show brings them back together with exchanged compliments and apologies and companionable chuckles. The theme is familiar, but in Jacobs's excellent picture-book debut it's buoyed by entertaining details and a lively narrative. Gorbachev, a recent Ukrainian emigr‚, provides delightful humanized animals enjoying the amenities of their world and reacting in various amusing ways to the protagonists' curious camaraderie. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.