WOOBY & PEEP

After an inauspicious start, two very different characters find common ground and friendship.

Wooby lives with his goldfish on a quiet street. Wooby likes things peaceful and orderly. He also likes his petunia patch and his 527-year-old tree and his pretty fountain. Then the house next door gets sold to Peep and her iguana, neither of whom are shrinking violets. Peep likes things loud and busy. The rest of the neighbors give Peep the bum’s rush, but Wooby doesn’t want to be rude, so he attends Peep’s housewarming party. But when Peep tries to solidify their new friendship, she manages to accidently break the fountain, then to topple the ancient tree and finally to destroy Wooby’s house—making herself scarce after this last disaster. Sitting amid the wreckage with his goldfish, Wooby actually starts feeling a little lonesome for his new neighbor, and when he discovers that Peep likes playing Go Fish, the deal is sealed. This is a very slim story, but it is surprisingly affectionate, both in the text and through Peterson’s artwork, with its washed pinks and soft blues and simple, expressive line. It is also worthy that Wooby can see past his stick-in-the-mud existence and Peep’s bumbling to find something of real value.

Friendship is where you find it, and as this book demonstrates, sometimes it’s under the most unlikely of rocks.