cover image Best Friends Sleep Over

Best Friends Sleep Over

Jacqueline Rogers. Scholastic, $14.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-590-44793-5

In Rogers's ( The Christmas Pageant ) second solo effort, realism is rather disconcertingly combined with anthropomorphic fantasy: depicted in intricately detailed watercolors, her characters are young jungle creatures who wear boys' clothes and live in bamboo huts filled with tropical flora. When Gilbert Gorilla is invited for a sleep-over date with his best friends (an elephant, a rhino and a crocodile), he's not sure if he can make it through the night without Mama's special goodnight song. Once he arrives at Eddie the elephant's house, Gilbert enjoys a typical sleep-over, complete with rowdy games (``Pin-the-Flies-on-the-Hyena'') and a pizza dinner. The story line tends toward the overly sweet: when Gilbert cries for the clown toy he forgot to bring with him, the problem is rather coyly resolved when the gorilla's friend does ``something special . . . giving Gilbert his teddy bear.'' By the time it is ``Gilbert's turn to do something special,'' the word ``special'' has grown a wee bit precious. Though in the end Gilbert does get by with a little help from his friends, his distress may reaffirm younger readers' fears of sleep-overs. Ages 3-6. (Oct.)