Rat & Roach Friends to the End
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Friends. Enemies. And friends again!
This is a story of two friends. Rat and Roach.
They get along great!
Except when Rat makes a mess . . .
Or Roach cooks too fancy . . .
Or Rat HUGS TOO TIGHT!!
In fact, why are these two friends? Rat and Roach aren't so sure either, but they're more unhappy when they aren't friends. Here is a book that shows friendship in a whole new, wonderful, hilarious light.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Covell introduces a classic New York City odd couple in his debut picture book. Sloppy Rat, round-bellied in a rumpled gray flannel shirt, and neatnik Roach, slim in a pinstriped vest, live together "under Avenue A." The urbanites share interests: garbage-man Rat plays drums, and food critic Roach wants to squeak lead vocals in a band. Yet they loudly disagree over decorating and dining. "Why do they shout? Is it because.... Rat makes a mess and Roach makes things too pretty? Or Rat has bad manners when Roach cooks too fancy?" Grammarians will wince at Covell's jerky transitions and laissez-faire attitude toward syntax, and this hit-or-miss quality marks the art, too. Covell pictures Rat and Roach in squiggles of black marker and spritzes of black, neon green, and hot pink spray paint; his imagery suggests graffiti tags and stencils, and Rat calls Banksy to mind. For all its improv surface and gross-out vermin, though, this is a benign narrative. If the subtitle suggests traps and poison, no (external) threats emerge to threaten the protagonists, who seal their friendship over a smelly heap of tuna. Ages 3 6.