Ernest and Rebecca #1: My Best Friend is a Germ
Six-year-old Rebecca gets sick a lot. That’s hard enough, but her parents have been arguing more lately, and she’s afraid they’ll separate. Her older sister, Coralie, copes by locking herself in her bedroom. One day Rebecca plays outside in the rain and catches Ernest, a “super microbe,” who becomes her best friend despite the efforts of her parents and her physician, Dr. Fakbert, to get rid of him. With the aid of Ernest, the frogs she likes to catch, and even Coralie, Rebecca copes with the fevers and medical scares in her life while also trying to keep her parents together even after Daddy moves out. Rebecca’s rich imagination and her family situation make this book more suitable for readers that can separate fantasy from reality and understand that sometimes life isn’t happy. The text, translated from the original French, is lively, and the art is very cute and cartoony, softening the sometimes serious story. Grades 2-4. --Kat Kan