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Summary
Summary
Poindexter is a shy, friendly, and perfectly happy pig. There's just one thing. How is a shy, nice, well balanced pig going to make friends? You never know who you will meet when you check out How to Make Friends at the library!
Author Notes
Mike Twohy is a Geisel Honor Award-winning author and illustrator of several books for children, including Poindexter Makes a Friend , Outfoxed about which The Horn Book said, "story time audiences will howl with laughter," Wake Up, Rupert! , and Mouse and Hippo , which the School Library Journal called "a story time hit." He has been a longtime contributor of cartoons to The New Yorker . He lives with his wife, cats, and yellow Lab in Berkeley, California.
Reviews (6)
School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Poindexter, a shy pig, is more comfortable reading stories to his stuffed animals than playing with the kids in his neighborhood. His favorite place is the library where he can sit by himself and read when he isn't helping the librarian. One day he helps Shelby, a shy turtle, find a book on making friends. As the pig reads to him ("I'm not very good at reading big words yet," he tells Poindexter), the turtle's head emerges from his shell, and perceptive readers will know that the two are kindred spirits destined to be friends. When Poindexter shares his favorite book, How to Play with Stuffed Animals, Shelby pulls out his favorite stuffies. The final scene shows the happy pair at Poindexter's house, surrounded by stuffed animals and books. The watercolor illustrations in this gentle story are done in a cartoon style. Humorous details, like the stone statues of bookworms flanking the library entrance, will bring smiles. The pals' pleasure in sharing books with a dim-eyed mole and each other is palpable, and the four steps to becoming friends will work equally well with shy youngsters, who may have found a home-and friends-in their school or public library. Whether read in a storytime or shared one-on-one, this reassuring story will envelop youngsters like a warm, cozy blanket.-Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Although Poindexter is a very shy pig, he blossoms a little at the library, where he can read all he wants (and assist the librarian) without feeling the pressure to exhibit bonhomie. But when an even shyer turtle named Shelby comes to the library looking for help ("Do you have any books on how to make friends?"), Poin-dexter fully emerges from his own shell, using his ace reading and library helper skills to make his first real friend. Twohy, a New Yorker cartoonist making his children's book debut, carefully and empathically shapes his story so that Poindexter is poignant without seeming pathetic. This little piggie isn't socially inept or depressed (in fact, the neighborhood kids would be happy to have him come out and play); rather, he needs to connect to others in a way that feels authentic for him. That's why Twohy's watercolor-and-ink vignettes of his hero in the library are so touching: looking cool and assured, Poindexter embodies how a sense of purpose and competence makes us feel like we belong in the world. Ages 4-8. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Because Poindexter pig is so painfully shy, he doesn't have many friends. He spends a lot of time at the library, where he finally meets a kindred spirit: a bashful turtle named Shelby who's looking for a book on how to make friends. Touches of humor and amiable watercolor and ink illustrations make the tips on friendship easy to absorb. (c) Copyright 2011. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Poindexter is a pig with a problem: He is shy.Cartoonlike illustrations show this earnest hero alternately hiding and playing alone, a bit lonely but still independent. Various animals from the neighborhood would like to be his friend, but Poindexter only watches through his window as they pass by, excusing himself when they ask him to join them. Mostly Poindexter stays safely ensconced in his room, reading stories to his stuffed animals, or enjoying himself in the library, reading alone or helping out the librarian. One day, a frightened turtle named Shelby ventures into the library, and the librarian encourages Poindexter to help him find a book on how to make friends. Together, the two read the book and follow its rules by smiling, introducing themselves, sharing and being nice to each other. They are even able to use their new skills to help another library patron. By the end, Shelby has come out of his shell both figuratively and literally, and the two make plans to meet the next day and read a book together on a common interest (stuffed animals). The brief, straightforward text is well matched to the expansive, gently funny illustrations.A sweet story with a satisfying ending, this provides some concrete ideas that can help a child make friends and may draw the shyest youngsters out from under their shells. (Picture book. 3-6)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
At the public library where he volunteers, a bashful young pig named Poindexter bonds with an equally shy turtle, Shelby, while helping him find a book on how to make friends. Since Shelby is not accomplished at reading, Poindexter reads through the book with him and discusses each of the four steps in making friends. After selecting a book on how to read to stuffed animals, the two go to Poindexter's house to read to their collection of animal toys. Although there is not much intrigue here, the bibliotherapy certainly doesn't overwhelm the sweet story, moving the plot along without getting in the way. The pleasing lightly colored cartoon-style illustrations depict a comfortable library setting filled with a multispecies cast of animals. The pig librarian (whose look borders on frumpy) fits nicely into the inviting scenes. Of the many titles on bashfulness, Daniel Kirk's Library Mouse: A Friend's Tale (2009) and Anna Alter's Disappearing Desmond (2010) are two that feature similar situations.--Enos, Randall Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
Shy, bookish and beastly creatures find companionship in these picture books. SQUISH RABBIT Written and illustrated by Katherine Battersby. 40 pp. Viking $12.99. (Picture book; ages 3 to 5) POINDEXTER MAKES A FRIEND Written and illustrated by Mike Twohy. 32 pp. A Paula Wiseman Book/Simon & Schuster. $15.99. (Picture book; ages 4 to 8) THE LONELY BEAST Written and illustrated by Chris Judge. 32 pp. Andersen Press. $16.95. (Picture book; ages 4 to 9) FOR young children, making that first friend bears all the weight and tension that wooing a potential sweetheart does for 17-year-olds. And if you're shy, bookish or beastly, the task is all the more awkward, as three delightful picture book debuts make expressively and tenderly clear. For Squish, a vaguely amorphous but hopelessly cute bunny - "just a little rabbit," as Katherine Battersby, his Australian creator, calls him - getting ignored, stepped on or passed by altogether is a lot more likely than finding companionship. But the quietly observant and imaginative little Squish needs a friend just as much as the next, hardier woodland creature. It is only when a squirrel unintentionally interrupts his independent play that Squish demands to be noticed, and he certainly deserves the attention. Seamlessly told in barely-there text and deceptively simple ink and collage pictures, "Squish Rabbit" is bound to win children's hearts. A busier and wordier take is "Poindexter Makes a Friend," written and illustrated with sensitive humor by Mike Twohy. (Has every New Yorker cartoonist done a children's book yet? If not, given the recent wave of charming contributions to the genre, they should get to work.) Here, the hero is a pig who hides when aunts and uncles come to call. He longs for companionship but sputters and blushes when neighborhood animals ask him to play. In the library, however, Poindexter feels quite at home and when the librarian asks him to show Shelby, a bashful turtle, where to find "How to Make a Friend," an alliance among like-minded souls blossoms. "I think they already are friends," my 6-year-old daughter, no stranger to shyness, pointed out to me as Poindexter and Shelby commiserated over the shared book. But what if, instead of a winsome pink farm animal, you are a rare beast like the oversize, nearly featureless black stump in "The Lonely Beast"? No matter how bright and lovely your surroundings (and Chris Judge's illustrations are great fun and completely original), you might one day suddenly come to feel, as the Beast does, very lonely. "He made up his mind there and then that he would go and find some other Beasts." In panel after the panel (the trip does go on, but then 5-year-olds gobble up extended journeys of this kind as long as they're not in the back seat), the Beast travels across land and ocean to wind up in what appears to be Central Park - or at least it seemed so to this New York reviewer. Judge, based in Dublin, tells a familiar tale but illustrates it with uncommon style and verve. Readers will want to know where the Beast ends up next. Friends, after all, like to keep in touch. Pamela Paul is the children's book editor at the Book Review.