Friends is Friends

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy Library, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 12, 2017

Review

The rating of this graphic novel suffered due to the ambiguity of audience. It's the grown-up, kicked-around, gritty "elephant and piggy" meant for an older audience. There are two stories at work here. Elephant is a tramp and boy pig is a young child. The two meet, exchange some very combative dialogue. Girl pig finds Elephant and, taking pity on him, brings him home and hides him in her closet. Within this narrative, we also get glimpses of Elephant of the past before despair and dirt overtook him. Turns out the pigs are brother and sister; their mother used to love Elephant. A strange, surreal tale of things lost. We take friendship where we can, but sometimes, it's not the best thing for us. And, in the end, you will either be eaten by a ghost polar bear, befriended by a ghost bear who was a ghost polar bear that just ate your brother, or completely alone and hopeless. This is one of those stories that makes you feel like you are missing some larger, really important message, but that, at it's final page, just leaves you scratching your head.

Overall Book Score: fair