Best Friend on Wheels (Concept Book)
Kindergarten-Grade 3—A rhyming text looks at two friends who share good times. It begins with a list of interests they share, and the colorful cartoon illustrations delightfully capture them in their favorite activities—reading, playing Frisbee, eating pizza (both pick off the peppers). It's not until several pages into the book that Sarah's wheelchair is revealed. Then the narrator flashes back to the day her second-grade teacher suggested that she show the new girl around. "When I saw she was using a wheelchair, I froze.…/I stammered and stuttered./I might say the wrong thing, I thought-so I muttered. I wanted to get a good look at her chair,/but I felt like a jerk, so I tried not to stare." Children will identify with these feelings. The girls find something in common to begin a conversation—they are both "rock hounds." The rhyme moves quickly yet touches on many aspects of life for people in wheelchairs—the rude reactions, getting into bed, and children's normal activities. The artwork conveys the same positive fun as the text. The book's lesson is evident without being didactic; the story focuses on real friendship, not the disability. The narrator sums it up: "It's odd that the moment I met her I'm sure/I saw only the wheelchair…./but now I see Sarah first—and she's cool!" This is an excellent addition that will work for groups as well as individual reading.—Carolyn Janssen, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, OHCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.