My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil

My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil
By Hanoch Piven
Schwartz & Wade Books, 2010. Unpaged. Picture Book.

Illustrated in gouache and glued on objects, My Best Friend is as Sharp as a Pencil tells how one very clever little girl answers her grandmother's many questions about school by describing things in similes. She gathers some common things and makes portraits of the people she's describing. My favorite is the art teacher, who is "as relaxed as my favorite pair of jeans" and has colored pencils for hair. Answering the questions of a visiting relative is something most children can relate to. Maybe this book can help them come up with some creative ways of supplying all those answers. A fun read, good for all elementary school ages.

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