We’re Going to Be Friends

More than 15 years after the release of the White Stripes’s White Blood Cells, one of the most enduring songs from the album (and certainly the one best suited to becoming a children’s book) gets a quirky adaptation. Blake, an animator who worked on Ren & Stimpy and a musician who performs as April March, uses photographic and hand-drawn elements to trace the friendship between two elfin children with dark skin and pointy ears (treble clefs are tucked into the girl’s ears, bass clefs in the boy’s). After the children “safely walk to school without a sound,” Blake draws them superimposed on a b&w photograph of the Long Island schoolhouse where Walt Whitman taught (“Numbers, letters, learn to spell/ nouns, and books, and show and tell”). Fans will appreciate how the White Stripes’ aesthetic is represented by the book’s red, white, and black palette, and Blake includes appealing retro flourishes throughout, including a Tenniel White Rabbit, a Betty Boop pocket watch, and a drawing style that evokes early Disney cartoons. Audio recordings of the song, including a version performed by Blake, are included. Ages 6–10. (Nov.)