Max
Marc Martin
Templar Publishing
Most of us will be familiar with the empty feeling that comes when circumstances separate close friends. In this affecting story by an award winning Australian artist, the avian protagonist certainly does.
Max is a seagull – a very fine looking one and slightly mischievous, so a gull after my own heart. He has a particular penchant for fish and chips

and a special friend, Bob who keeps him supplied with the latter. And the former? The friends spend their evenings together catching those: life is pretty peachy for Max.
Then one day when Max arrives at Bob’s shop, he finds it empty; but where oh where is Bob?
Max waits a long time but then decides it’s time to take flight and off he goes searching …

until as he flies above a city, a familiar smell pervades his nares.
Down he swoops and eventually finds …

Wonder of wonders – there is his old pal and a joyful reunion is the order of the day, along with a few chips of course.
Oh, and their after hours fishing trips are resumed too …
Beautifully rendered through mixed media illustrations and a spare text that allows observant readers and listeners plenty of room to fill the gaps, this is a tender-hearted celebration of friendship triumphing against the odds. For instance we are never told about the fairground and its possible impact on the shops it dominates but it’s shown several times in the early scenes.

Delicious!

Best Friends
Mara Bergman and Nicola Slater
Hodder Children’s Books
Crazy capers ensue when three balls are thrown: these are immediately pursued by Dexter, Daisy and Lily, three altogether different dogs. Dexter McFadden McSimmons McClean (imagine yelling ‘Come here DMMM’ in full when he charges off) is a dashing greyhound, Daisy is a somewhat dreamy-looking dachshund and Lily, a prettified poodle.
Hot on their trails go respective owners, William – at a mad dash, Jack at a more leisurely stroll and a somewhat embarrassed Maddie, sporting a new haircut. But Dexter crash-lands right into a rather genteel picnic;

Daisy somehow scares a reader and Lily becomes entangled in a kite. That however, is nowhere near the end of the canine-caused chaos …

There’s a soaking in store too and it’s not just for those demented dogs

But, with new friendships forged, all ends happily in Mara Bergman’s hilarious rhyming romp. It’s told in a jaunty fashion entirely in keeping with which are Nicola Slater’s superbly energetic, retro-style illustrations that have all the verve and vigour of Lynley Dodd’s well-known and much loved, Hairy Maclary.
Definitely a book that will stand up to the many re-readings I’m sure young listeners will demand, mine certainly have. I found myself falling for all three of those canine charmers despite being dog-phobic.

Friends
Eric Carle
Puffin Books
A boy and a girl are close friends playing together and sharing each other’s secrets until one day the girl is gone; she’s moved somewhere far away. The boy counts to ten then sets off to find her. Having swum across a cold river, slept under a starry sky climbed up a steep mountain and down into a grassy meadow. He journeys through the rain till sleep overtakes him. Next day off he goes once more through a shadowy forest and a garden where he gathers flowers and eventually finds his friend again. “I have found you!” he shouted. “I knew you would come,” she said.
Much of the journey features only the landscape, which is conveyed through abstract brush-strokes and collage forms, with the children appearing just at the beginning and end. This serves to allow the reader to step into the shoes of the boy and in so doing get a feeling of the enormous distance he travels. Certainly the lad was a determined over-comer of obstacles.
The final pages show a photograph of Carle and a girl friend from his early childhood in 1932 from whom he was separated when his family moved. Seemingly this friendship was part of the inspiration for the book, although the real-life friends have never been reunited.

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