A Better Best Friend
Olivier Tallec
Gecko Press

A red squirrel is thrilled to find a best friend while out for a walk in the woods one morning; it’s a mushroom named Pock and has a ‘real best friend face’. Despite not saying much, said mushroom seems willing to comply with the squirrel narrator’s desire to show him “things you wouldn’t show anyone except a best friend” : things such as puddles reflecting the sunlight and clearings with tall grass. Autumn and winter pass and the two stay close to one another doing seasonal things, but with the spring comes Moo.

Moo is a fly, a fly that knows some even better parts of the forest and now the three spend their time together, with Squirrel wondering whether perhaps Moo is a better best friend than Pock.
Now Squirrel has a dilemma. ‘I want ONE best friend. Not two!’ he declares. Then one morning along with the sun, Gunther (a mouse) appears. Again it’s a while before much is said.

I’m pretty sure a lot of thinking is going on though, especially by Squirrel before the declaration of ‘The (Better) End’ – I wonder: what do you think? It certainly works for playing cards as the final page shows but for a bestie? Hmm.

Translated from the French by Anthony Shugaar, Tallec’s playful, slightly surreal quirkiness, is evident in his scenes of the characters in this tale which is likely to leave many readers, including this reviewer pondering upon its open-ended nature – or perhaps that’s the creator’s intention.