It’s More Fun with Two

When Mouse’s kite gets stuck in a tree and Elephant’s marble becomes lost in the grass, the two seem well suited to helping each other: “You can reach big things, and I can see small./ What friends we will be:/ one friend small, one friend tall,” Courtney writes. But, as humorously captured by Hudson’s pale painterly art, the path to friendship proves bumpy when their differing sizes make play difficult. A slide makes a comically poor hiding spot for the bigger of the two during hide-and-seek, a game at which “Mouse was too small for Elephant to catch.” Just as the pair sadly conclude they’re mismatched, a band of zoo animals playing live music comes to the rescue, inspiring the duo to swirl and twirl in a raucous duet that joyously celebrates their discovery of dancing as shared pastime. While Courtney’s rhymes don’t always sing, Mouse and Elephant’s camaraderie winsomely models the value of finding common ground. Ages 3–up. (Feb.)