Salina Yoon, Be A Friend, Bloomsbury/Allen & Unwin, 1 August 2016, 40pp., $14.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781619639515
Dennis is not much of a talker. He much prefers to mime. While the other kids like climbing trees, Dennis prefers to BE a tree. He clearly identifies with the famous mime artist, Marcel Marceau, and even dresses like him. But his distinctive ways cause Dennis to be excluded by the other children. And, as the author so beautifully puts it, “even trees get lonely”.
Be a Friend would be an ideal book to boost the confidence of a young child who is a bit different from the gang. I love that Dennis does not conform in order to solve his loneliness. He eventually meets a kindred spirit in the aptly-named Joy and, after happily forming their own little group, the other children decide to join them! So Dennis becomes accepted by the others despite his differences…or could it be because of them? After all, it would get rather boring if everyone were the same, wouldn’t it?
Line drawings complement the skilfully simple text using colours that are muted, like Dennis. They are set against minimal brown or white backgrounds, on plain, uncoated pages.
Many illustrations feature a dotted red line, which cleverly lets the reader into Dennis’ imagination. When Dennis has his arms extended in one illustration, for example, a tree-shaped red line around him lets us know what he is pretending to be. In this way, the endpapers show Dennis imagining himself doing and being a whole range of things. They also show Dennis and Joy each holding an end of that dotted line; connected by their imagination.
Be a Friend is aptly summed up in its blurb as “a heart-warming celebration of individuality, imagination and the power of friendship”. Besides being a thoroughly enjoyable read, I appreciated this book on a number of levels. It is one that deserves to be revisited at various ages and stages.
Reviewed by Julie Murphy