You Will Be My Friend!

Lucy the bear, who adopted a stubborn boy in Brown's Children Make Terrible Pets, tends to come on a little strong. She wakes up with an optimistic plan to find a pal%E2%80%94"the forest is crawling with fun critters. Surely one of them will want to be my friend," she tells her mother%E2%80%94and skips into the woods, wearing a pink tutu and an overeager grin. Brown's panels, framed by ironic wood-grain backdrops, show Lucy's overtures being rejected by a zoo's worth of fauna including a beaver, giraffe, and ostrich. Upon meeting a swarm of bees for "lunch," she runs away dripping with honey and calling, "Sorry I ate your house!" Lucy's only enthusiastic playmates are four human preschoolers, and even she feels overwhelmed by them. Like its predecessor, this outing features an earth-tone palette, pencil illustrations, cut-paper voice bubbles, and hand-lettered display type; Lucy's wilderness is thoroughly domesticated. Brown jokes about enforced companionship, yet doesn't abandon his heroine, acquainting her with a willing ally when things seem their grimmest. Readers won't miss the message that friendship is something that happens in its own time. Ages 3%E2%80%936. (Sept.)