Best Frints in the Whole Universe
Yelfred and Omek have been best frints since they were little blobbies. They play and snack, and sometimes they even fight, all in a language similar to but slightly different from, English. When Omek decides to borrow Yelfred's new spaceship without asking (and then crashes it), it sparks the biggest fight yet. Can these two best frints make up and move on?
Award-winning picture book creator Antoinette Portis delivers a new universe of cleverness and imagination in this hilarious, sweet, and otherworldly book about friendship.
Reviews
“Close encounters of the charming kind.”
―Boston Globe
“Those seeking materials on friendship, especially for storytimes, should add this wonderfully wacky take on the subject.”
―School Library Journal
“The humor and pacing are spot-on, and in the closing endpapers, readers will find an invitation to make up their own words. ('Your turp!') It’s out of this world.”
―Book Page
“There’s a lovely phase in family life when a small child starts to pronounce distinct words, every now and then mangling one in such a memorable way that it becomes part of the household argot. At our house, yogurt has for years been 'yodit,' and a squirrel usually gets called a 'squiller.' In 'Best Frints in the Whole Universe,' Antoinette Portis captures the charm of familiar words mispronounced in a setting that’s out of this world.”
―Wall Street Journal
"Portis' bright, odd landscapes, flora and fauna digitally colored in vibrant hues, and her two grinning friends are all sweetly demented and irresistible...Cosmically delightful."
―Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Her dot-matrix layers of retro color add dimension to the simple shapes and close-up images, and her flamboyant misspellings and soundalike words let beginning readers in on the sly jokes while crafting an all-too-knowing portrait of what frintship often looks like."
―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This marvelous picture book of friendship on Planet Boborp is hugely entertaining with its nonsense words, which somehow make sense, and its wildly colored pink and purple beings fighting and then making up, while at the same time offering a universal and important message about friendship and getting along.”
―Buffalo News
Honors
Kirkus Best Books of the Year 2016
Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of 2016
“The Best Kid’s Books to Give This Year” MPR NEWS 2016
Fuse #8 The Best Picture Books of 2016
Best books of 2016, Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2017
An ALA (ALSC) Notable Children’s Book 2017
PW Best Summer Books 2016
Horn Book Mind the Gap Awards 2017
Five starred reviews (The Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal)
Featured on the site The Pirate Tree―Social Justice and Children’s Literature
Maryland Association of School Librarians 2017-2018 Black-Eyed Susan Award, Picture Book Category
