My Friends

In this ode to everyday activities and things, a free-spirited girl hops, jumps and kicks her way across the countryside, paying homage to her friends along the way. Like a satellite launched into perpetual motion, the constantly moving child praises--among others--the rooster who taught her to march, the ant who taught her to explore the earth and the teachers who taught her to study. In spare, luminous landscapes, the minute world reveals a special beauty to those still and attentive enough to behold it. The activities depicted are alternately lively and quiet, but the prevailing mood is one of continuous celebration. Gomi's ( Bus Stops ; Where's the Fish? ) meticulous sense of design and careful use of brilliantly colored, highly delineated images imbues the story with a sense of the wonder and delight to be derived from life's simplest--but bountiful--moments. Ages 2-4. (July)