YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! (Starring Lucille Beatrice Bear) [Hardcover]

Peter Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 5, 2011 | Age Range: 3 - 6 years | Series: Starring Lucille Beatrice Bear | Lexile Measure: 260L (What's this?)

Today is the day the exuberant Lucy is going to make a new friend! But she finds it's harder than she had thought--she accidentally ruins the giraffe's breakfast and is much too big for the frogs' pond. Just when she's about to give up, an unexpected friend finds her, and loves her just the way she is.

This heartwarming story offers a unique and humor-filled spin on the all-important themes of persistence and friendship.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Behind the Scenes of You Will Be My Friend!
(Click on Images to Enlarge)

I used my computer to make sketches, play with text, and add borders to each page during the early development of You Will Be My Friend. Then I printed out all the pages and put them up on my wall, so I could see how they worked together as a group. I marked up the printouts with all kinds of notes to myself, and would later go back to my computer to make those changes.	After developing the story and pictures, I eventually settled on final sketches and words for every page. Using a light box, I traced the final sketches onto paper with a mechanical pencil.	I used a standard paper towel as a chamois, and rubbed the graphite to get texture and various shades of gray.	Using that paper towel chamois, mechanical pencils and erasers, I eventually ended up with final drawings.
In many cases, I would draw the different elements of an illustration separately, and combine them later with my computer. Here are a few drawings that ended up on the book cover, along with additional drawings not seen in this photo.	I also used mechanical pencils and erasers to do the hand-lettering for all of the dialogue in the story.	I cut construction paper to create word balloons, boxes for the narration text, and the background papers that would eventually be placed behind the drawings in the final illustrations.	I scanned all of the drawings, cut paper, hand lettering, and photos of wood grains into my computer. Then I adjusted the positions of the various elements of the illustrations, tinted the drawings to a sepia tone, and added transparent color to create the final art. Here you can see what the drawing looked like before and after I added the color.

Photo credit: Gwen Schroeder

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About the Author

Peter Brown is the author and illustrator of many bestselling children's books, including Children Make Terrible Pets and The Curious Garden. He is the recipient of a Caldecott Honor for Creepy Carrots!, two E.B. White Read Aloud Awards, a New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book award, and a Children's Choice Award for Illustrator of the Year. Peter's website is www.peterbrownstudio.com.

Product Details

• Age Range: 3 - 6 years
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 5, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316070300
• ISBN-13: 978-0316070300
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 0.4 x 11.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Brown writes and illustrates books for young whippersnappers. He grew up in Hopewell, New Jersey, where he spent his time imagining and drawing silly characters. He studied Life Lessons at the School of Hard Knocks, and then got his B.F.A. in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

After college Peter moved to Brooklyn, New York and spent several years painting backgrounds for animated TV shows. And then in 2003 he got a book deal to write and illustrate his first picture book FLIGHT OF THE DODO, which is a story that involves bird poop...in case you're into that kind of thing. Since then he's written and illustrated three more picture books, and illustrated several other books for young whippersnappers. His books have been adapted into plays and animated short films, they have been translated into a dozen languages, and they include the 2010 E.B. White award winner, Children's Choice Award winner, and New York Times bestselling books THE CURIOUS GARDEN.

His books CHILDREN MAKE TERRIBLE PETS, YOU WILL BE MY FRIEND! and his latest book, CREEPY CARROTS! are also New York Times bestsellers and award winners. CREEPY CARROTS! written by Aaron Reynolds has also been named a 2013 Caldecott Honor book.

You can find out more about Peter and his books at peterbrownstudio.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars WE HAVE ANOTHER WINNER HERE FOLKS...What a charming and delightful work this is. September 17, 2011

By D. Blankenship HALL OF FAMETOP 50 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I will be honest with you folks. It has been a long time since I have read a children's book that brought me so much joy and tickled my funny bone like Peter Brown's latest work being reviewed here. There really is absolutely nothing not to like about this book, and that goes for children as well as adults and those adults who still have a bit of child lurking in them. I actually found myself smiling throughout the entire book and actually laughing out loud at times.

Lucy, a rather gregarious little girl bear, wakes up one morning and informs her mother that she has decided to make a new friend that very day! She is excited. Her mom tells her... "That IS exciting, but how do you plan on finding a new friend?" Lucy informs mom that "the forest is crawling with fun critters. Surely ONE of them will want to be my friend."

And so her quest to find and make a new friend! Lucy soon discovers that making a new friend is not really all that easy, especially if you do not know how. Misadventure follows misadventure for our little bear cub in a pink skirt. Somehow things just don't work out time and time again. Grabbing a skunk and scrubbing the skunk down with soap and water and a brush to get the smell out is not the way to get close to a skunk Lucy finds. Neither is perching on top of an ostrich and asking "So tell me, what's it like to fly?" And shouting at the top of her lungs "DOESN'T ANYBODY WANT TO BE MY FRIEND?!" in the middle of a flock of flamingos does not work very well either.

Peter Brown has a very quirky and dry sense of humor which children will understand instantly and adults will appreciate. If you couple this simple and humorous text with some wonderful art work you have a very appealing story with a wonderful little lesson thrown in for good measure.

As to the art work; I can normally spot and figure out what methods the author has used to create his or her paintings and drawings. I have to admit that this one had me stumped. I found that the little slide show here in the Amazon product page almost as fascinating as I found the book. While familiar with all the procedures the author used, I never would have thought to incorporate all of them. The effect is wonderful and truly eye catching. I found myself suffering a twinge of envy I am ashamed to say.

As with all Little, Brown and Company books, this one is built to last and should be able to take quite a beating and is most certainly made to be read over and over again....truly quality work which is becoming more and more difficult to find these days.

And by the way...Lucy does learn the secret of making a new friend and all ends well.

Tip: When reading this book, do not miss the various expressions on the various critters Lucy encounters...they are gems.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars You WILL like this review! November 1, 2011

By Dienne TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The irrepressible Lucy Bear, the star of "Children Make Terrible Pets", is back for her second adventure. This time, she's going to find a friend. She WILL find a friend.

Poor Lucy. She tries hard. She means well. But she just doesn't quite get it. She's enthusiastic - perhaps a bit too much so, as she splashes all the water out of the frog pond and climbs into a giraffe's breakfast tree. She tries to be helpful - for instance, by scrubbing the smell out of the skunk. She tries to fit in - into the rabbits' hole, for instance. She'll do anything to find a friend (well, not quite anything, as we discover in a delightful reference to "Children Make Terrible Pets"). But for some odd reason, things just never work out quite right.

Devastated, Lucy pulls out all the stops, but force doesn't work either. Eventually, of course, Lucy finds her friend (or, rather, a friend finds her). It appears that Lucy has learned another valuable lesson.

In my review of "Children Make Terrible Pets", I mentioned that I was on the fence about the illustrations. The bears are rather boxy and the color palette is rather muted earthy-tones. But Peter Brown has won me over. His distinctive illustration style works perfectly with his whimsical yet oddly realistic story-telling. The illustrations, especially the facial expressions, perfectly capture the humor and other emotions of the story. Many individual illustrations are priceless, particular those which show Lucy's hapless attempts to find/force friendship, for instance, the illustration of Lucy chasing a cheetah yelling, "Come back here and have fun with me!"

Children and adults alike will laugh and smile at this delightful lesson in finding - and being - a friend. Anyone who's ever craved companionship but not known quite how to find it will sympathize with Lucy, and anyone who's ever been the target of such a "friend" will sympathize with Lucy's targets. Ultimately, I think most of us have been on both sides of that divide, so the whole story resonates humorously, but powerfully.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Lucy Returns... Truly Excellent Book!! September 5, 2011

By Kindle Addict

Format:Hardcover

Peter Brown is brilliant yet again! Once you get past the Facebook pun on the title, the book is a real pleasure for kids, adults, girls and boys. Funny, beautiful illustrations, and a bit of a good lesson built-in. It makes a great birthday gift for pre-K to 2nd graders. And if you buy the Lucy pair of books, your children's friend's parent's will believe you put some real thought into the gift.