A New Friend for Marmalade - Hardcover

Alison Reynolds has written more than forty books. When she was young, she was lucky enough to live next door to her two best friends. She also had a fluffy black cat named Charlotte. Alison lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Heath McKenzie is a bestselling illustrator from Melbourne, Australia, who owned a cat when he was very young. Now he has a small dog that behaves an awful lot like a cat and even fancies fish for dinner.

PreS-Gr 1—Marmalade's best friends are Ella and Maddy. The cat spends all his time with them as the girls play pretend and he looks on. As they are building a playhouse, a rambunctious boy from across the street comes barging in on his scooter, knocking down their creation. Marmalade warms up to Toby, but the girls are unimpressed. Later, when they are building a sand-castle city, he shows up again. This time, he turns on the outdoor faucet to make a moat but inadvertently turns on the lawn sprinklers. The girls are not amused when their sand castles collapse and Marmalade, wet and frightened, leaps into a nearby tree. Toby earns their respect, though, when he figures out a way to rescue the feline with his cape. The next day, all of them, including Marmalade, wear capes and ride Toby's scooter together. This story shows that boys and girls can play together through cooperation—sometimes it's a sand castle day, and sometimes it is scooter-riding day, and both are fun. The line drawings with scattered bits of color throughout prove a lovely accompaniment to this simple tale of learning to get along.—Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA