A review by graypeape
My Bright Friend by Simon Boulerice

2.0

The illustrations were sweet and bright and colorful, and full of detail. The story, well, I had issues with it. I appreciated that Ludo's parents were divorced, and dealt with him living in two places, but starting the story with "Ludo's parents didn't love each other any more" seems a little abrupt. That could've been handled more gently. Ludo is sad because he doesn't have any friends in the city, where his father lives, but he entertains himself by watching the traffic out the window. He particularly likes watching the lights, and asks his father who is in charge of changing the lights? His father tells him a patient little man lives inside the light. Ludo worries about the little man, & sneaks out one night to bring him a snack. Wait, what? Ludo does know he's not supposed to do this, his father told him never to go outside alone, but the poor little man, right? This is a big nope in my mind, giving kids the idea that it's okay to sneak out of the house to meet strangers, disobeying your parents. Ludo does this every night, and makes friends with the man. Now, it's sweet he's trying to help someone, and he's made what we presume must be an imaginary friend, but still, not cool, sneaking out. Then the time comes for Ludo to go home, and he and his father walk past the light post, which his father notices is misshapen. Turns out there really is a man in there, and he gained weight eating all those snacks. I don't know, I'm sure this story meant well, and I wanted to like it more, but I just can't get past Ludo's dangerous behavior. Nice illustrations though.