Review - Best Friends Forever

Best Friends Forever (Bink & Gollie #3)
by Kate DiCamillo & Alison McGhee
illustrated by Tony Fucile
Date: 2014
Publisher: Candlewick
Reading level: C
Book type: graphic novel
Pages: 88
Format: e-book
Source: library

Gollie is quite sure she has royal blood in her veins, but can Bink survive her friend’s queenly airs — especially if pancakes are not part of the deal? Bink wonders what it would be like to be as tall as her friend, but how far will she stretch her luck to find out? And when Bink and Gollie long to get their picture into a book of record holders, where will they find the kudos they seek? Slapstick and sweetness, drollery and delight abound in this follow-up to the Geisel Award–winning, New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book Bink and Gollie, written by the beloved and best-selling Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee and brought to hilarious life by Tony Fucile.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is the third book in the Bink & Gollie series, though I suspect you don't need to have read the second book to get something out of this one (nor would you necessarily need to read these in order). I enjoyed Best Friends Forever, just not quite as much as the first book.

In this installment, Gollie becomes a queen (much to the chagrin of Bink), Bink buys an Acme Stretch-o-Matic (probably from the same catalogue that Wile E. Coyote uses) to make herself taller, and the girls decide they want to get their picture in Flicker's Arcana by developing an extraordinary collection of... something.

I didn't find that the individual stories tied together quite as much as the ones in the first book did. (But I did like how one of Bink's rainbow socks is still in play!) As was the case with the first book, the girls (especially Gollie) use big words that can be puzzled out by kids based on context, and the illustrations are just as cute as ever. (I can totally see these books being used as the basis for an animated series or film.)

Despite not loving this as much as the first book, I still think this is a really strong series. I'll have to see if I can get my hands on the second book at some point!

Quotable moment:

"All righty, then," said Bink. "Let's eat!"

"I shall no longer be cooking pancakes for you, Bink," said Gollie.

"Why not?" said Bink.

"I regret to inform you," said Gollie, "that royalty does not cook for others."

"Oh," said Bink. "Okay. I regret to inform you that I am going home."

Plot: 3/5
Characters: 5/5
Pace: 5/5
Writing & Editing: 5/5
Illustration: 4/5
Originality: 5/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 4.38 out of 5 ladybugs