Description Share Post A Better Best Friend Olivier Tallec, translated by Antony Shugaar (Gecko Press) Pock is the ideal companion. It seems friends like Pock, ‘aren’t like pinecones. They don’t just fall from trees‘. In fact, they’re the type of pal with whom you might have the most wonderful times. Thereafter, you might find your ‘secret places in the forest’ alongside ‘clearing with tall grass‘ and ‘small puddles that reflect the sunlight’. Isn’t it all perfect? However, what if another arrives? Someone who might be A Better Best Friend? Olivier Tallec has been a favourite picture book maker with Bookwagon since our beginning. We’ve lingered over his works, including Jerome By Heart, wishing that the full range of his titles were more readily available. It seems translated titles are a pickle at times. Thank heavens for publishers such as Gecko Press! Alongside the dilemma of choosing favourite friends, there’s also what you enjoy most about them. For example, an alternative to Pock might have better places in the forest to share. There might be blackberries to share and ‘going to the river’. Then again, what if another chum arrives? Someone who also might prove the chosen one? Bookwagon loves this picture book so much. Not only is it charming in its setting, the wonder and joy, but then there’s a deeper philosophical message about friendship and expectations. We recommend A Better Best Friend for reading alone, reading aloud, talking about and loving.
