Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
— William Shakespeare

Rule-breaking author, Douglas Florian, explores friendship in his new poetry collection, Friends and Foes, Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 2018. What makes author-illustrator Douglas Florian rule-breaking? His picture book is longer than 32 pages! Unless you’re a debut author seeking publication, you won’t realize how few people get to break that rule.

The most enchanting thing about his book is not the page count, though, it’s the direct way his clever poems portray friendships of all sorts, smiles and warts: good, bad, imaginary, sporty, besties, opposites, cross-cultural, etc.

I also love that so many of his crayon illustrations have redheads. Makes us redheads seem downright normal.

Copyright 2018 Brenda Davis Harsham

Notes: Friendship and music are two things that pump up your immune system and make you feel connected and happy. Combined into a poem, they would be another kind of friendship, not in the book: a musical one. Now it just needs a crayon illustration….

I was all set to mope
when Sylvie and her clarinet,
changed my mind.

Why feel like a dope
when I can play my drum set,
bebop and unwind?

Copyright 2018 Brenda Davis Harsham