Shy children should be heartened by the happy outcome of this empathetic debut. Labaronne establishes Alexander the alligator's isolation in the first scene using what appears to be watercolor and pencil. Standing alone, Alexander stares out at readers with a furrowed brow, his schoolmates grouped together in the distance. Like some of his human counterparts, Alexander often responds inappropriately, garnering the wrong kind of attention: "At story-time, Alexander decided that the drum would be a good playmate. He walked around beating the drum. Boom! Boom! Boom!" Tongue-tied, the alligator tries to impress a new girl, Louise the lion, by squirting juice on her teddy bear and other means, but after she finally blows her top, Louise takes him under her wing. They play together, which leads the others to play with them, and Louise tells the teacher she has "a new best friend Alexander." Alexander's emotional range covers the gamut, from his lonely realization that unlike a friend, the drum "didn't talk back," to his moment of triumph, characteristically unspoken: "Alexander smiled and thought, 'And I have a new best friend named Louise.' " A skillful use of white space emphasizes the hero's separation from others and his reunion with them. The characters, rounded and squatty, take on the cuddly appeal of stuffed animals, especially Alexander. Wide-faced, with tiny, close-set eyes and a pronounced overbite, he makes an endearing, if uncertain, role model. Ages 4-8. (July)
