I Don't Care

September 26, 2022
Accompanying fervent text by Fogliano (My Best Friend) that tumbles forth in a burst of confessions, friends Idle (Witch Hazel) and Martinez-Neal (A Perfect Fit) team up to create a visual story about friendship. “I really don’t care what you think of my hair/ or my eyes or my toes or my nose,” begin rhyming lines, running through an ample list of attributes that the book seems to portray as superficialities. With soft graphite strokes and linocut highlights in teal and yellow, the illustrators draw two young children, portrayed with skin the color of the paper, who each sport blunt-cut hair and sturdy boots. They’re leaning against the same tree, arms crossed, looking studiously away from each other. With every line, though, their hard feelings thaw, and they’re soon playing together on the page, as the litany turns from “don’t”s to “do”s and each speaker voices what’s at stake in their friendship: “I really do care/ that you always play fair/ and you don’t change the rules/ when I’m winning.” While not every reader will be comfortable with a friend who offers sidelong critiques (“I really don’t care if your lunches smell weird”), the alternating speakers’ loyalty (“and I care that we’re friends/ and I care that we’re true”), and images of shared experience following conflict, add warmth to this testament to faithful companionship. Ages 3–6. Agents: (for Fogliano and Idle) Steven Malk, Writers House; (for Martinez-Neal) Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary.

September 1, 2022
It's all about the body language in this enjoyable collaboration. Idle (Flora and the Flamingo, rev. 7/13; Witch Hazel, rev. 9/22) and Martinez-Neal (Alma and How She Got Her Name, rev. 5/18; Fry Bread, rev. 11/19) apply their signature styles to two children: a light-skinned child with a blond kewpie cut and a child with darker skin and a thatch of straight black hair. They stand on either side of a thick tree trunk that bisects the double-page spread, backs to each other and arms crossed. Children and tree are both rendered in soft graphite on creamy stock; the only colors are a teal oval that hovers over Idle's kid and a similar yellow one over Martinez-Neal's. What puts them at odds is a mystery, but Fogliano's (My Best Friend, rev. 3/20) lilting first line will have young readers speculating: "i really don't care what you think of my hair / or my eyes or my toes or my nose." As the text trots along, the children first look at each other, then engage in parallel play. They share their separate snacks, smiling, as their respective ovals begin to overlap. Meanwhile, the text never breaks from its rhythm as it modulates from what the characters don't care about to what they do, including sharing, playing fair, and each other's feelings: "i really do care about all of that stuff / i really do care a lot." Here the children embrace on a tire swing, together on the page with friendship now assured. Thoroughly charming notes from each illustrator close this winning outing. Vicky Smith

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from November 18, 2022

Gr 1-3-In silken soft graphite scenes with teal and yellow highlights, two children-each drawn by one of the two illustrators to be self representative-deliver a lesson in values that also happens to be as moving a declaration of close friendship as ever was. Like their expressions, which start out as scowls but change partway through to smiles and exchanged glances, the incantatory lines begin in forbidding tones ("i [sic] really don't care what you think of my hair/ or my eyes or my toes or my nose") but shift key for the important things: "i really do care/ that you always play fair...," going on to "and i care if you smile/ and i care if you're sad/ and i care if you're worried/ and i care if you're mad," on the way to "and i care that we're always/ and i care that we're two/ and i care that we're friends/ and i care that we're true." The lighter haired of the twosome is ambiguously gendered, and along with being easy on the eyes and written in language and cadences that particularly lend themselves to choral reading, this warm, wise, lyrical expression of togetherness is refreshingly clear of the sentimentality that goops up such similarly themed titles as Carmela Coyle's Do Princesses Have Best Friends Forever? or Monica Sheehan's Love Is You & Me. VERDICT A psychologically acute tally of friendship's most solid foundations, worth sharing with audiences large or small and tailor-made for reading aloud.-John Edward Peters

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2022
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* What matters most to best friends? It's not your nose or clothes; it's not your hair, your house, or what you eat for lunch. Using a lighthearted tone, two friends reject the outward indicators that many people use to judge others. Do you like polka dots or floral prints? Do you dance funny? When you paint a cow, does it look like a bunny? Best friends do not care. They do care about playing fair, about wishing and singing, about feeling sad, worried, or mad. Best friends like to play together, catch frogs carefully, or have a picnic. Fogliano's sprightly, rhythmic text sets a fun tone for exploring what really matters in friendship. While effective picture books grow from the combining of words and images, this book takes the collaboration a step further by drawing on the talents of real-life best friends and Caldecott honorees Idle and Martinez-Neal. In humorous notes, the two describe their artistic process and shared design of each page of the book. Using their favorite colors, teal and yellow, with graphite, the linocut illustrations seamlessly expand on Fogliano's narrative. The result is a warm, loving celebration of how to be a friend, and a successful artistic experiment.

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Starred review from July 15, 2022
A friendship book made by friends. Fogliano's title may prompt thoughts of Sendak's Pierre, who doesn't care--until he encounters a lion. There aren't any perilous felines in this picture book, however, and there are two protagonists. At first, one child occupies the verso, with teal highlights in the grayscale graphite-and-linocut illustrations. The other is on the recto, with yellow highlights. It appears they are at odds, with the gutter between them seeming to symbolize an emotional barrier as opening text reads, "i really don't care what you think of my hair / or my eyes or my toes or my nose." Soon, though, subtle changes in facial expressions and posturing reveal the friends' true feelings as Fogliano's deftly rhymed verses, which never miss a beat in their cadence or in their emotional resonance, help readers realize that while the friends don't care about surface matters like appearance, attire, or possessions, they do care about each other. Compositionally, they end up occupying shared space on the spreads and will doubtlessly take up residence in readers' hearts, too, with lines like "but mostly i care that you're you / and i'm me / and i care that we're us and i care that we're we" sealing the deal. Both children have skin the color of the page; one has darker hair, while the other has lighter hair. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Show you care by sharing this book with others. (Picture book. 3-8)

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2022
It's all about the body language in this enjoyable collaboration. Idle (Flora and the Flamingo, rev. 7/13; Witch Hazel, rev. 9/22) and Martinez-Neal (Alma and How She Got Her Name, rev. 5/18; Fry Bread, rev. 11/19) apply their signature styles to two children: a light-skinned child with a blond kewpie cut and a child with darker skin and a thatch of straight black hair. They stand on either side of a thick tree trunk that bisects the double-page spread, backs to each other and arms crossed. Children and tree are both rendered in soft graphite on creamy stock; the only colors are a teal oval that hovers over Idle's kid and a similar yellow one over Martinez-Neal's. What puts them at odds is a mystery, but Fogliano's (My Best Friend, rev. 3/20) lilting first line will have young readers speculating: "i really don't care what you think of my hair / or my eyes or my toes or my nose." As the text trots along, the children first look at each other, then engage in parallel play. They share their separate snacks, smiling, as their respective ovals begin to overlap. Meanwhile, the text never breaks from its rhythm as it modulates from what the characters don't care about to what they do, including sharing, playing fair, and each other's feelings: "i really do care about all of that stuff / i really do care a lot." Here the children embrace on a tire swing, together on the page with friendship now assured. Thoroughly charming notes from each illustrator close this winning outing.

(Copyright 2022 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)