The Smeds and the Smoos by Julia Donaldson

Friendship-building can be an emotionally charged event in a child’s life-young readers will certainly see themselves in Buddy’s plight-but, alas, there is not much storytelling magic to be found. The rest of the story plods merrily along, all pieces falling exactly into place (she even likes Robo Chargers!), accompanied by Bowers’ digital art, a mix of spot art and full-bleed illustrations. He secretly whispers his “real, official name” to Sunny at lunch-an indication that a true friendship is being formed. No one uses his given name, either they just call him Buddy. However, when a new student arrives (one day later) and asks everyone to call her Sunny instead of Alison, Buddy gets excited.

Surely there is someone else who does, too! Unfortunately, there isn’t. His sister, Lady, has some helpful advice for making a new pal: “You just need to find something you have in common.” Buddy loves the game Robo Chargers and karate. To make matters worse, there is a field trip coming up, and Buddy needs a bus partner. How do you make a new friend when an old one moves away?īuddy (from Sorry, Grown-Ups, You Can’t Go to School, 2019, etc.) is feeling lonely. Rip-roaring verse but painfully simplistic messaging. Moreover, the notion that interracial couples and mixed-race offspring-a purple Smed/Smoo baby-are a solution for racism is false and places an unfair burden on mixed-race readers. This unsubtle metaphor for fixing racism and xenophobia ignores real-world power imbalances: The Smeds and Smoos may distrust one another, but they share equal status. (Grandfather Sned had forgotten to lock it.) / Bill pressed the button, and Janet steered… // …When their families woke, they had both disappeared!” A multiplanet search leads to reconciliation and integration. They clambered into the Smeds’ red rocket. “Janet and Bill stole out that night / While their families slept / and the squoon shone bright. Despite parallel contemptuous commands to “Never, never play with” the other group, Janet and Bill secretly bond and grow up to marry. The illustrations’ eye-catching colors are intensely saturated throughout, sometimes jarringly so. Smeds and Smoos alike have antennae and tubular noses, but Smeds, red, have webbed feet they wear bare while Smoos, blue, sport elflike boots. Not far away, on a humplety hill, / There lived a young Smoo / by the name of Bill.” The patter and nonsense words ( wurpular, trockle) invoke Dr. “By a loobular lake on a far-off planet / There lived a young Smed, / and her name was Janet.

This tale of prejudiced extraterrestrials jumps immediately into rollicking verse. Two youngsters from mutually hostile groups connect.

The Smeds and the Smoos by Julia Donaldson