I enjoyed it - I appreciated the visual parallel created between the suit-wearing Elliot and his penguin, as well as the little illustrative clues about Elliot's father and his own turtle companion, and can see why this was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book earlier this year - but somehow in the end, I just wasn't as involved in the story as I thought I would be.
All that said, somehow I just didn't find One Cool Friend to be quite the stand-out that I expected it to be, based on my friends' rave reviews. The story is engaging, and will keep children who long for a special animal companion of their own entertained, while the artwork is expressive and amusing. Readers familiar with David Small's hilarious Imogene's Antlers will smile in recognition at the amusing surprise ending here, in which Elliot's father turns out to have a similar pet of his own, in the form of a Galapagos turtle. Will Elliot be in trouble? Or will there be a surprise in store for him.? His clueless dad is oblivious to the goings on - from Elliot cranking the AC in his room, to creating an ice rink for the new resident - until he goes to take a bath and finds a (live!) penguin already in the tub. His distracted parent, thinking he is talking about a stuffed animal, duly hands over a twenty dollar bill (and gives his permission), and soon Elliot and his new spheniscine friend are settling in together at home. It is a good example of how the way things are phrased can mean something completely different from how they sound sometimes (as well as a cautionary tale about not thinking the adults in life may not be as oblivious as one may think). This book would make a wonderful introduction to a social studies unit on explorers. The word play is amazing and the father's reactions and the little boy's politeness make this book a must-read! I will be buying this one for my library.
I found myself sitting in the library, laughing out loud as I read this book. That night, as his father goes to take a bath and discovers Magellan in the bathtub, asks Elliot where the penguin came from, to which Elliot responds "Argentina" and his father points at the turtle on the floor and begins to talk about where Captain Cook came from. His father, commenting in the context that they are speaking of Magellan the explorer tells Elliot about his own experiences with Captain Cook. He names his penguin Magellan, takes him home, does his research and then uses the $20 his father had given him to purchase things to take care of Magellan.
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