Buddy and Earl Go Exploring

by Maureen Fergus

Illustrated by Carey Sookocheff

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-714-6

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

March, 2016

Buddy the dog and Earl the hedgehog from Buddy and Earl (Groundwood Books, 2015) are back and this time the fast friends are on the move.  Okay, they stay in the house but there’s so much to explore in their home, especially when everyone is asleep. And it all starts with Earl declaring a simple “Bon voyage” when they should be settling down to sleep.

Earl is essentially a Zen-kind of traveller, going “Wherever the road leads me” and “However long it takes” (pg. 8), but he’s surprised when his fast and furious running leads him nowhere, having never left the wheel in his cage.  Everything changes when somehow Earl gets Buddy to go exploring with him.

Everything is new and, in the imaginative mind of the little hedgehog, something to be investigated.  Their first stop is “a silvery lake in the shadow of a great mountain” (pg. 15) a.k.a. Buddy’s water bowl and the garbage pail, where Earl enjoys a lazy soak while Buddy discovers some tasty leftovers in the can he upturned.  But spotting a hairbrush in Mom’s purse, Earl sees a lady hedgehog in the jaws of a monster and enlists Buddy’s largesse to save his sweetie from being devoured. Reciprocating, because that’s what friends do, Earl stands up to a monster of Buddy’s world, the vacuum cleaner.

With declarations of friendship and heroism, the two finally settle down amidst the mayhem of their night’s exploration with a resounding “Bon soir.”

Maureen Fergus again offers up the unlikely friends as a story of contrasts: the little hedgehog with the massive imagination and courage to see outside his box, and the tall dog with the staid attitude of familiarity who understands more about the real world and still goes along with his prickly friend.  Buddy and Earl Go Exploring is  a sweet tale of travels to new worlds without ever leaving home.  The simplicity of their friendship and endeavours are balanced with the unfussy illustrations of Carey Sookocheff who also provided the artwork for Buddy and Earl.  Carey Sookocheff has created the ideal representations of the two animals in their physical appearances and their manners–petite and large, bold and cautious–and completed Maureen Fergus’ textual characters in such a way that the two will always be recognizable.  There’s Stella and Sam, Max and Ruby, and Frog and Toad, and now there’s Buddy and Earl.

From Buddy and Earl Go Exploring

by Maureen Fergus, illus. by Carey Sookocheff (pg. 30)

Nota Bene: More adventures to come, starting with Buddy and Earl and the Great Big Baby in August, 2016.

Buddy and Earl

by Maureen Fergus

Illustrated by Carey Sookocheff

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-712-2

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

August 2015

I’m sure that most friendships don’t start out that way.  There may be those encounters by which individuals become “fast friends” but I suspect many friendships  begin slowly as each tries to figure the other out. Friend? Foe? Agenda? Danger?  In fact, in Maureen Fergus' Buddy and Earl, when Meredith brings a mysterious open box in, Buddy the dog probably wasn't thinking "friend" at all but rather "what?"

A few pokes  and an amiable introduction between Buddy and the rounded creature who identifies himself as Earl has the two chatting away.  But still Buddy doesn't know the "what" that is Earl.  He asks but Earl has an odd assortment of answers to, "And what are you, Earl?" He could be a race car, or a giraffe, or a sea urchin, a talking hairbrush–definitely plausible–or a skyscraper, rhino or mouse.  Nothing seems to work for Buddy who is clever enough to know what Earl isn't.  But when Earl suggests that he is a pirate and Buddy his first mate, the two go off on an adventure that has Mom shaking her head and the two bonded with friendship.

I've adored Maureen Fergus' YA books (The Gypsy King, Razorbill, 2012; A Fool's Errand, Razorbill, 2013; Tomorrow's Kingdom, Razorbill, 2014) but she's showing her versatility in writing picture books, recently winning the Ontario Library Association's Blue Spruce readers' choice award for The Day My Mom Came to Kindergarten (Kids Can Press, 2013), and Buddy and Earl displays the same wonderful voice of innocence and discovery, with a touch of parental attitude.  Whether Buddy is a real dog and Earl another family member, I have no doubt but it really doesn't matter.  The two dissimilar pets demonstrate the ability to make friends no matter where and no matter with whom just by being themselves.  It doesn't really matter whether Earl is a hedgehog, though I suspect he is, and prone to imaginative bursts of creative play or steadfast and thoughtful like the loyal Buddy. The two come together and make something better and bigger:  a friendship.  And that's all it takes to identify Earl in the end and to add a new moniker to Buddy beyond "dog".

I don't know Carey Sookocheff's work but I think we all will soon.  Buddy and Earl is her first picture book and I believe the simplicity and retro style of her artwork, here in muted creams, khaki, orange and powder blue, will endear her work to many.  It has the effortless ambience of child's play to which young children will be drawn.  I imagine that the young will be as charmed by Carey Sookocheff's illustrations as they are to the guessing game that Buddy and Earl play whilst the two strut into their new friendship.  Even better, we've got more adventures to which we can look forward with the two new friends getting into new situations in Buddy and Earl Go Exploring (March, 2016) and Buddy and Earl and the Baby, both from Groundwood Books.