Friend or Foe? - Hardcover

Sobol, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1554984076 ISBN 13: 9781554984077

Publisher: Groundwood Books, 2016

Synopsis

A lonely mouse lived in a small house beside a great palace. In the great palace lived a cat.”

Each night the mouse gazes up at the cat in the palace tower. Is the cat my friend? he wonders. Determined to find out, he bravely makes his way into the palace through a tiny hole and climbs all the way up to the tower, where the cat sits on the windowsill.

Hello, are you friend or foe?” he squeaks.

This simple story by John Sobol has a surprising outcome, giving young readers a chance to draw their own conclusions. It is perfectly complemented by Dasha Tolstikova’s subtle yet striking illustrations.

About this title

About the Author:

Dasha Tolstikova’s illustrations have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker. Her graphic-novel memoir, A Year Without Mom, has received four starred reviews and has been translated into Korean and Swedish. She has also illustrated The Jacket, written by Kirsten Hall, a New York Times Notable Book.

John Sobol is an author, musician and poet who has performed at festivals and clubs in a dozen countries. He also likes reciting poems to children. He has toured an acclaimed one-man show called Two Million Years of Technology, and he has written many popular TV shows for children, including Pippi Longstocking and Under the Umbrella Tree. This is his first picture book.

From School Library Journal:

PreS-Gr 2—Every evening, a mouse creeps to the roof and looks up at a cat. Every evening, the cat climbs the palace stairs and looks down at the mouse. The cat cannot leave, but one day the mouse discovers a way into the palace. The mouse thinks for a long time—should he enter? "He was wondering if—after all those hours of looking at each other—he and the cat were friends." The mouse decides that his desire for friendship makes the risk worthwhile, but as he creeps through the palace, his mind spins: "Was the cat friend or foe?" With great suspense, the mouse approaches the cat, who is in her usual evening perch, looking down at the house below. The cat is so startled by the mouse that she falls—safely—out the window and is adopted by the woman in the house. Their places reversed, the two still see each other every evening. The cat looks up and the mouse looks down, but still the mouse wonders, "Friend or foe?" The spare graphite and ink wash illustrations, highlighted digitally with tiny pops of color, give the story a gravitas that fits its existential questioning. While the title query is never definitively answered, the characters and drama provide a satisfying reading experience. VERDICT A solid addition for most libraries; hand this one to fans of Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's Sam and Dave Dig a Hole.—Anna Haase Krueger, Ramsey County Library, MN

About this edition

• Publisher: Groundwood Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1554984076
• ISBN 13: 9781554984077
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Tolstikova Dasha