Searching For What You Have + Perfect Picture Book Friday Looks at The Friend Ship.

Perfect Picture Book Friday (PPBF) Looks at The Friend Ship by Kat Yeh.

My father never cared to spend more than a few minutes searching for something. Often, when he couldn’t find what he was looking for, he’d go out and buy another, come home, and promptly find the misplaced item. My father might have been the only man who owned more than ten dremels, (a super cool tool that can do a bazillion home repair fixes and so much more) thousands of nails, screws, nuts, and bolts, more than twenty-five hammers, around four dozen screwdrivers in varying sizes, two bandsaws, eight drills, and I’ll stop here before I feel compelled tweak this list to fit The Twelve Days of Christmas. So… what does having what you’re looking for and going out to find it have to do with today’s Perfect Picture Book Friday review?

Everything.

Title – The Friend Ship

Written by  – Kat Yeh

and illustrated by – Chuck Groenink

Published by – Disney Hyperion – 2016

Suitable for ages – 3-8

Theme – Sometimes what you search for is already yours. Loyalty and friendship.

Opening – Hedgehog was curled up in a prickly little ball in the lonely little nook of a lonely little tree when she heard someone say her name.

“Poor Hedgehog seems so lonely!”

“I know, but it will get better. Friendship is out there–all she has to do is look.”

Amazon Review –  View it HERE. Little Hedgehog is very lonely. But then she overhears passersby talking about something that gives her hope–something called a Friend Ship!

Hedgehog imagines a ship filled with friends of all kinds, and soon she’s ready to hit the open seas in a boat of her own to track it down. Along the way, she meets other lonely animals eager to join her quest.

They search north. They search south. They search east. But Hedgehog and her new friends can’t find the Ship anywhere! Until she realizes she knows just where the Friend Ship is. . .

This heartwarming tale by Kat Yeh, with charming illustrations by Chuck Groenink, proves that sometimes, what you’re searching for is right in front of you.

Why do I like this book? Every once in a while I come across a picture book that has me saying, “I wish I had written this book. It’s brilliant!” For me, The Friend Ship is that book. The author, Kat Yeh, has taken the word friendship and turned it into a marvelous misunderstanding of friend ship. Then, she added a crew of helpful and understanding animal characters, gave them a boat, and set sail to this timeless treasure of a story.

The illustrator, Chuck Groenink, with a loving hand, created a sea-worthy, child-friendly crew, eager to lend a hoof or paw. Each page offers variety to the reader through interesting angles, bubble art, and creative close-ups. When I saw this treasure at the bookstore, I knew I needed to add it to my picture book collection. It’s the sort of story that, after reading it, I returned to page one and read again. And again…

Learn more about Kat Yeh HERE

Learn more about Chuck Groenink HERE.

Find more “Perfect Picture Book Friday” reviews at Susanna Leonard Hill’s blog HERE.