Book review of Walter Had a Best Friend by Deborah Underwood and Sergio Ruzzier

This deceptively easy image e-book explores the feelings we really feel when friendships finish. Deborah Underwood’s story focuses on Walter, a rodent-ish fellow with white fur, spherical ears and a lengthy pink tail. Walter’s greatest buddy is Xavier, a yellow duck-like creature whose toes and flat beak are inexperienced.

The two associates do every little thing collectively. They hike, paint photos, float in a rowboat and simply take pleasure in sitting quietly. Their friendship modifications, nonetheless, when a hedgehog named Penelope seems, and she and Xavier start spending extra time with one another. 

Gradually, Walter’s world is remodeled. He experiences anger, loneliness and unhappiness as Xavier gravitates extra and extra towards Penelope. Especially evocative is a scene by which Penelope and Xavier have invited Walter to a ball recreation. It rains, and the brand new associates share an umbrella whereas Walter sits aside from them, depressing and moist. 

Underwood’s spare textual content gives ample house for illustrator Sergio Ruzzier’s surreal, otherworldly landscapes and vivid pastel colour palette. Ruzzier depicts the affect of Walter’s loss in approachable, shifting pictures. For occasion, we study that Walter is quiet, “but it was a sad quiet. Not best friend quiet.” The accompanying unfold exhibits Walter sitting alone on a dock; a dangling rope close by means that the rowboat has been launched with out him. He has misplaced not solely his buddy but in addition the pleasures they loved collectively.

Just as Walter loses his friendship with Xavier slowly, his restoration can also be sluggish, But he misses the actions he used to do with Xavier, so one vivid day, when rays of sunshine beam by means of the closed curtains at his home, he simply can’t resist the urge to go on a hike. Instead of taking the previous path, he strikes out on a new one—and discovers the promise of a new friendship alongside the way in which.

The e-book’s mild tempo, partaking art work and lyrical but easy textual content make this a comforting, reassuring learn for younger readers experiencing transitions at college or with associates. Walter Had a Best Friend is a gem.