Noodle & Lou

PreS—This is a feel-good book about looking on the bright side with a little help from a friend. Noodle, a little pink worm in a green baseball cap, is feeling down in the dumps. "His bright side was muddy. His high points sank low./The grass grew much greener in other worms' rows." To revive his sunny outlook, he calls on his good friend Lou, a blue jay. Lou doesn't let his friend's gloomy mood last long, countering every sad-sack statement of Noodle's perceived faults with a reason to celebrate life. Told in rhyming couplets, the story of friend helping friend is illustrated in bright watercolors with each object surrounded by a thick black outline. The pictures are filled with humorous details, including worms with sunglasses, acorn-top hats, and earphones. Although Noodle laments having no eyes, beak, feet, etc., his mood is lifted, literally, by his special bond with Lou.—Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI