Friends: Snake and Lizard

Description

Title: Friends: Snake and Lizard
Author: Joy Cowley
Illustrations: Gavin Bishop
Publisher: Gecko Press, Wellington, 2013
Format: Paperback
Condition: Very Good – Some fading on back cover

Description:

“‘I absolutely LOVE eggs!’ Snake said. ‘You know that.’
Lizard replied, ‘You mean you like eggs. We do not use the word love for food.’
‘I do.’
‘Love,’ said Lizard, ‘is a word for relationships, not for things. You can’t have a relationship with your dinner.’
‘I can,’ Snake replied.”

Snake and Lizard are always arguing. This does not stop them from being the best of friends. Through a series of short, self-contained chapters they bicker, compete, go into business together, and repeatedly demonstrate — accidentally — what it actually means to care about someone.

The original Snake and Lizard (2007) won the NZ Post Book of the Year and the White Raven Award from the International Youth Library in Munich. The judges said it “utterly beguiled” them with its “assured writing, sharp humour and gentle, unforced observations on the nature of friendship.” The Herald on Sunday called it “a classic tale that will be read by children for generations.” The US School Library Journal gave it a starred review and called it “a great read-aloud.” Friends: Snake and Lizard (2013) is the sequel, with the same two characters and the same register.

Joy Cowley is one of NZ’s most celebrated children’s authors. Gavin Bishop is one of NZ’s most decorated illustrators — winner of the NZ Children’s Picture Book of the Year four times, the Margaret Mahy Medal, and the Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement.

Suitable from age 5 up; a particularly good read-aloud for 5-8 year olds.

Why We Stock It:

Two characters arguing about whether you can love your dinner, in a book that turns out to be genuinely wise about friendship. Joy Cowley and Gavin Bishop at their best. The kind of book that gets read until it falls apart.