Silver Linings

PreS-Gr 2–Pip and Parker are best friends. When something goes wrong—a crayon breaks in two, or a rogue strawberry falls into a glass of lemonade—Pip tends to become upset. But Parker always knows what to say: “Now we can both use yellow,” or “Now we’ve got pink lemonade.” As the two play the afternoon away, Parker finds a way to turn around one disappointing situation after another. At the end of the book, when Parker becomes upset over ruined drawings, Pip gets the chance to cheer up her friend for a change. Woodcock’s soft color palette illustrates the friendship with gentleness, and the disappointments the friends face will be relatable to young readers. The well-written story, which uses symmetry to provide reinforcement in vocabulary and word placement, encourages readers to find hope when things don’t go to plan, and reminds them that a good friend makes things better, even when they don’t know what to say. Pip is drawn as white; Parker is Black.