YO! YES?

A classic scenario from the innovative creator of Charlie Parker Played Be Bop (1992)—two boys parlaying what could be a confrontation into friendship—in a series of monosyllabic exchanges between a stylishly informal, self-confident boy (black) who appears on the left-hand pages and the anxious, overdressed (white) newcomer on the right. ``Yo!'' ``Yes?''/``Hey!'' ``Who?''/``You!'' ``Me?'' they parry, their feet precisely planted at page bottom, their stances as expressive as the varied styles of Raschka's hand-lettered text. Succinctly, they move on to an important confidence: ``What's up?'' ``Not much.''/``Why?'' ``No fun.''/``Oh?'' ``No friends'' and to a gleeful epiphany—``Me!'' ``You?''/``Yes, me!'' ``You!''/``Well?'' ``Well.''/``?'' ``Yes!''—and their feet spring up from the page's edge: ``Yo! Yes! Yow!'' Whether it's caution or prejudice that's overcome, the process is reduced to elementals—two figures, roughly drawn yet vibrant with feeling, and their comical dialogue (a breeze for beginning readers), encompassing a world of meaning. (Picture book. 4-7)