We Go Together! A Curious Selection of Affectionate Verse

Despite its greeting-card size, Brown’s collection of 18 love and friendship poems is anything but stock. In “FBF,” two friends share memories about their “greenish phase” (“We... concocted strange juices/ with lettuce and kale./ We trained an iguana/ to get us the mail”), while later poems discuss gratitude (“My mind was in a panic,/ but you remained calm,/ ready to do battle/ with the splinter in my palm”) and laughter (“I cackle/ and you chortle./ Together we chorkle”). Brown’s bean-nosed, long-legged monsters, and eccentrically attired dogs, cats, and humans are as unusual and memorable as ever, as he pairs a heaping spoonful of nonsense with unexpected yet genuine observations about the joy of companionship. Ages 4–8. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary Agency. (Jan.)