Friends - by Mies Van Hout (Hardcover)

About the Book

With "Friends," the creator of the international hit "Happy" goes one step further and shows emotional interactions. Here she uses monsters to show different situations, making the images recognizable for little monsters of all ages. Full color.

Book Synopsis

"Van Hout expertly conveys the emotional peaks and valleys of each friendship; the monster's eyes and expressions speak volumes." -- Publishers Weekly, *Starred Review*

Award-winning author-illustrator Mies Van Hout celebrates the fun (and sometimes bumpy) stages of friendship as monster friends play, fight, and reconcile.

Set against Mies van Hout's iconic black backgrounds and utilizing the same vibrant pastel style of the internationally bestselling Happy, each spread of Friends shows a pair of childlike monsters portraying a single verb, from play to tease to fight, reconcile, and cuddle.

This critically acclaimed picture book is both a beautiful art book and a valuable tool for social-emotional learning. Carefully crafted "monster" characters express an emotional depth that is visually stunning and relatable to children and adults alike.

This new, high-value edition of Friends features extra-heavy pages that, like the truest friendship, will stand the test of time and repeated readings.

"Like the earlier Happy, this conveys emotional heft and arresting images in an appealing, child-size package." -- Kirkus Reviews

Review Quotes

Praise for Friends

"Van Hout expertly conveys the emotional peaks and valleys of each friendship."--Publishers Weekly *Starred Review*

"[V]an Hout captures the landscape of friendship for toddlers through teens and beyond...Like the earlier Happy (2012), this conveys emotional heft and arresting images in an appealing, child-size package."--Kirkus Reviews

"Colorful childlike drawings...cleverly explore playfulness, boredom, teasing, fighting, making up, cuddling, and so on...This book has a lot of child appeal, and no doubt youngsters will choose a favorite monster they can relate to. This short book will pair well in storytimes with other picture books about friendship."--School Library Journal

"Quite fabulous!"--Youth Services Book Review *Starred Review*

"A perfect gift...for a little one interested in expanding vocabulary and keen to talk about emotions felt when dealing with friends."--Sal's Fiction Addiction

"Laid out on twelve black spreads, with dynamic and very animated pastel drawings, van Hout shows young readers a series of monster friendships."--7 Impossible Things

About the Author

Mies van Hout is the author and illustrator of the picture books Happy, Friends, Surprise, From One to Ten, and This Is My Daddy, among others, which have been hugely popular in Europe and North America. She studied graphic design at the Arts Academy in Groningen, the Netherlands, and has worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer since 1989. Her distinctive paintings are cheerful and bold, and her work has been published in more than twenty countries.