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geoffwood's review against another edition
5.0
I was initially confused because of the slightly more abstract relationship between the title and the text (as these things go). It is admittedly a somewhat banal book in a very literal way but the diction is fun and it was a grand ol time spitting it once I got in the rhythm. The art is also rather charming.
felinity's review against another edition
3.0
A strange cross between what I'd normally expect from Margaret Wise Brown and Dr. Seuss. The text varied from page to page, sometimes all illustrated and sometimes leaving a small person asking "What type of {X} is that?"
Good for a beginning reader, if only I could encourage looking at the words rather than just guessing from the pictures!
Good for a beginning reader, if only I could encourage looking at the words rather than just guessing from the pictures!
sean67's review against another edition
3.0
Everything is beautiful in this world that Wise Brown has created here.
It is a nicely illustrated and simple book, does it need to be more realistic for the world we really live in?
Well maybe.
But maybe it is also good to see the beauty in things that you may not always see.
Anyway that is for other people to discuss, it is also a good little picture book.
It is a nicely illustrated and simple book, does it need to be more realistic for the world we really live in?
Well maybe.
But maybe it is also good to see the beauty in things that you may not always see.
Anyway that is for other people to discuss, it is also a good little picture book.
xterminal's review
2.0
Margaret Wise Brown, The Friendly Book (Golden Press, 1954)
The farther I get outside the Goodnight Moon circle of Margaret Wise Brown books, the more I understand that saying about lightning never striking twice. The Friendly Book is the weakest book the Brown corpus we've encountered so far. It seems to be an attempt at poetry. To Brown's credit, the structure of most of the pieces of the book is the same, though that structure is very flawed; the first half of each poem (each of which is title “I Like _____”, with a different fitb for each) is a simple list of things, while the second is a quatrain that actually approaches verse. Had the whole book resembled those second halves, this might at least be half-decent. On the other hand, it isn't, and it isn't, respectively. **
The farther I get outside the Goodnight Moon circle of Margaret Wise Brown books, the more I understand that saying about lightning never striking twice. The Friendly Book is the weakest book the Brown corpus we've encountered so far. It seems to be an attempt at poetry. To Brown's credit, the structure of most of the pieces of the book is the same, though that structure is very flawed; the first half of each poem (each of which is title “I Like _____”, with a different fitb for each) is a simple list of things, while the second is a quatrain that actually approaches verse. Had the whole book resembled those second halves, this might at least be half-decent. On the other hand, it isn't, and it isn't, respectively. **
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