Rita & Ralph's Rotten Day

Rita & Ralph’s Rotten Day
By Carmen Agra Deedy
Illustrated by Pete Oswald
Scholastic Press, 2020. Picture Book.

Rita and Ralph are good friends that once they go “down the hill, and up the hill, and down the hill, and up the hill” they do all sorts of things together. Only one day Ralph accidentally hurt Rita while they were playing a new game. Of course feelings were hurt—on both sides—and the friendship was in a potentially disastrous place! In order to fix things both friends must do a lot of going “down” and “up” hills to go and talk to the other. This is a sweet story that would be good to tell in story time (especially if the storyteller has kids hold up their thumbs and move them “up” and “down” for all the hills that Rita and Ralph have to climb). This is seriously a lovely book on friendship, feelings, and forgiveness.

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