Written and illustrated by Brian Lies
Format: Book
Who Its For: Kids
Have you ever had a super-good friend? Have you ever lost a friend? In The Rough Patch, Evan experiences both. Evan and his dog are best friends. They go everywhere and do everything together, in all weather, year in and year out. Their very favorite thing is working in Evan’s amazing garden, where they grow beautiful things to see and eat. Then one terrible day, Evan’s doggy friend dies. He is heart-broken, bitter, angry and alone. What will he do without his best friend? No longer able to stand the sight of their beautiful garden, when he feels so dark and sad inside, Evan chops it all down! He then turns his garden into the saddest, loneliest spot he can, a place that grows only terrible plants with thorns and bad smells, until the day a pumpkin vine creeps in under his fence. He begins to care for it and slowly, as it grows, he begins to remember happier times. That vine produces a HUGE pumpkin and Evan decides to enter it at the Fair, where at last he shakes off his darkness and, very unexpectedly, makes a new friend.
Gloriously illustrated by the multiple award winning author of Bats at the Beach, this is an honest and hopeful book about friendship, healing and the ways we deal with loss. A 2019 Caldecott Honor Book and an ALA Notable Book
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