Two unlikely friends, an optimist and a pessimist, try to have a picnic, and fall into a string of events that alternate rapidly between lemons and lemonade.
Good News, Bad News
by Jeff Mack
Chronicle Books
ISBN: 978 1 4521 0110 1
When a chipper rabbit turns up at the edge of a grumpy mouse’s mousehole, picnic basket in hand, he announces, “Good News!” Immediately, it begins to rain. “Bad news,” retorts the mouse. The rabbit heads him off – he has an umbrella! “Good news!” and on it goes, with the sequence of the afternoon’s events swinging between good and bad. This actually reminds me a lot of Fortunately, Unfortunately, but centering around a simpler, more everyday scenario.
With the rabbit always looking on the bright side, while the mouse is quick to point out the problems, this book is not only a cute book of very few words, but also a little tale about how we look at things, and how friendships can work, even in the most unlikely-seeming pairings. (I am a big, big sucker for stories about friends, I must confess.)
Being as this book uses so very few words, the illustrations really tell the story, and they are great fun. Cartoonish in style, with plenty of facial expression, they are nice and bold, and depict scenes that kids from toddlers to about grades 1 or 2 would both understand and enjoy, for there is a lot of humour here. In the end, the mouse finally snaps and roles are reversed, making for a fn little twist, as well as a cementing of their friendship, for he is clearly trying to make the rabbit, who he has reduced to tears, feel better.
This, my friends, is a winner, and one I really look forward to sharing!
This looks like a really fun one…!!