A BETTER BEST FRIEND

A single-minded journey through best friendship.

An unnamed squirrel is excited to find a best friend while walking through the woods. “His name is Pock,” he is a squirrel-sized white mushroom, and “he has a real best friend face.” “Pock doesn’t say much,” and it’s unclear how he feels about being press-ganged into accompanying a squirrel who wants to show him “things you wouldn’t show anyone except a best friend.” When a fly named Moo arrives, the squirrel isn’t sure what to do and shouts, “I want ONE best friend! Not TWO! ONE!” Then a mouse named Gunther arrives, and the concluding sentence—“The (Better) End”—shows all four playing a game of cards, indicating that one can in fact have multiple best friends. Translated from French, the occasionally clunky sentences have a pleasant stiffness to them, reminiscent at times of Jon Klassen’s work. The surreal nature of the mammal/insect/fungal friendships—presented entirely from the perspective of the squirrel, who seems to have a rather selfish view of such things—raises more questions about the nature of relationships than it provides. It’s either a simple story hiding more complex ideas or a complex story disguising a very simple idea, depending on how readers interpret the eventual four-way bond.

A somewhat existential storytime experience.