My best friend is a goldfish by Mark Lee

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Ill. by Chris Jevons. Carolrhoda Books, 2018. ISBN 9781512426014
(Age: 4+) Theme: Friendship. The boy and his friend argue, and in trying to find another best friend, he rejects them all, realising that his former best friend is the one for him, but he must be more patient and celebrate the fact that they are different.
He trials many other things as his best friend. First there is his dog, Murphy. They howl at the police car, sniff everything together, eat from the bowl on the floor, but when they go to the park, Murphy wants to play with his real friends.
Then he trials Gus the cat, the hampster, Hercules, and the goldfish, Fishy Robert. Finally he comes to work out that just as cookies and milk are the same but different, they are still perfect together, just as he and his friend are the same but different, but still work as best friends.
Mark Lee has a few books to his credit and lives in New York, while Chris Jevons began life as a cartoonist and lives in England. The two forms work well together, Jevons' cartoon like characters please the eye and compliment the spare words with ease.
Fran Knight

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