My Best Friend is As Sharp As A Pencil

My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil. Hanoch Piven. 2010. May 2010. Random House. 40 pages.

When Grandma comes to visit, she asks so many questions about school. What is your teacher like? What's your favorite part of the day? Who is your best friend? Who is your favorite teacher? Who do you play with? Who is your second-best friend? Who's in your class? This time, instead of giving her the same old boring answers, I have an idea...I'll show her!

I enjoyed My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil. I liked the expressiveness of it. How the text and art work together to create descriptions. For example, the young boy on the cover--the best friend, Jack--is described this way:

Jack knows everything about every country in the world.
Jack is as sharp as a pencil,
as curious as a magnifying glass,
and as precise as a microscope.

The art shows a boy with globes for eyes, magnifying glasses for glasses, a pencil for a smile, and a microscope as a nose. This book--in many ways--all about the art, the illustrations. The way you can use objects--everyday objects--in art. I also liked the language--the text is just as rich as the art in some ways. I like the way the librarian is described:

Listening to Mrs. Sheila, the librarian, is as exciting as rubbing a magic lamp.
She is as interesting as a book full of stories.
When she reads them, her eyes shine like marbles.
She can be as funny as a clown or as scary as a monster.

© Becky Laney of Young Readers