Even Better Than Sprinkles: A Story About Best Friends

by Linda Skeers, Heather Fox (Illustrator)

Overview

When two best friends get into a tiff, they learn how to repair their friendship with a homemade card with glitter, a special cupcake with sprinkles, and most importantly an apology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593705513
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	06/25/2024
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	388,098
Product dimensions:	10.60(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	AD620L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Linda Skeers is the author of several critically acclaimed children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction. When she writes humorous picture books, her goal is to get readers to laugh out loud. Linda also teaches picture book writing workshops, including sessions on writing humor for kids. She lives in Iowa.

Heather Fox is an illustrator and graphic designer, creating art in pen and ink, digital, and gouache. She is the illustrator of several funny picture book including the Llama trilogy by Jonathan Stutzman that was praised in a starred review from The Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books saying ““The goofy premise itself will elicit giggles, but it’s innocently wide-eyed Llama who really sells the silliness of the story.”
Heather lives in Lititz, Pennsylvania, with her husband, the writer Jonathan Stutzman.

Editorial Reviews

06/03/2024

Unicorns, cake sprinkles, and song mark this playtime-driven portrait of best-friend-dom, told in a wry second-person voice. Light comedy accompanies Skeers’s descriptions of imbalanced dynamics between the story’s BFFs. One friend, portrayed with brown skin, is oblivious to their own self-centered actions, while the other, shown with pink skin, tends to roll with the punches (“A friend will dress up in your homemade unicorn costume.... Even when your friend is the back half”). When the oblivious bestie “accidentally-on-purpose” blows out the candles on their bud’s birthday cake, there’s an understandable rupture between them. A subsequent apology seems driven, not by empathy or regret, but by the offending party’s desire for a playmate, a conclusion that is used to signify the “magical” connection between best friends in a work that strains to be jubilant. Ages 4–8. (June)

Publishers Weekly

2024-04-20
Two friends mend a rift.

Skeers lists the attributes of a good friend as a blissful montage depicts two children taking part in a variety of activities. A friend will agree to wear your unicorn costume with you—even if that means being the back half. A friend will let you take the coveted role of knight when you play make-believe (“even though you were the knight the last time. And the time before that”). And a friend listens attentively when you sing loudly and off-key. As the story unfolds, we get a portrait of a loving yet slightly one-sided friendship. But when one child “accidentally-on-purpose” blows out the candles on the other, put-upon friend’s birthday cake, conflict erupts. How to make things right? A little reflection on the part of the candle-blower and “a whole bottle of glue and three kinds of glitter.” The chastened youngster makes an “I’m sorry” card, and the two hug it out. While sprinkles are mentioned in the title, they don’t figure that prominently in the story. Bright, candy-colored backgrounds set a playful mood, though the round-headed, round-eyed characters have a somewhat generic look. Although many kids will relate to the subject matter (who among us hasn’t clashed with a friend?), the story borders on being didactic; most kids won’t be asking for rereads. One of the children presents Black; the other appears to be white.

A few sprinkles of fun but unlikely to truly satisfy. (Picture book. 4-8)

Kirkus Reviews