Alex Is My Friend - Hardcover

Russo, Marisabina

4.17

6 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688104185 ISBN 13: 9780688104184

Publisher: Greenwillow, 1992

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Even though Alex is a dwarf and sometimes has to use a wheelchair because of the operation he had on his back, his friend does not mind because they still have good times together.

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From School Library Journal:

Kindergarten-Grade 3-- Ben, who narrates, tells readers that he and Alex have been friends ever since they were little. But when Ben was five, he remembers, he noticed he was larger than Alex, who was six. At that time, his mother explained that although Alex would get older and continue to learn, his body would always grow slowly because that was how he was born. Ben sees Alex through a long recuperation after surgery, and helps with the wheelchair when the smaller boy returns to school. As with Where Is Ben (1990) and The Line-up Book , (1986, both Greenwillow), Russo has drawn her appealing story from an actual experience of her son. The portrayal of Alex is realistic, forthright, and sensitive--relevant to nearly any physical deviation a youngster might encounter and question. The full-color, framed gouache paintings alternate with the text, which is bordered with miniature illustrations, complementing and extending the story. A well-done presentation of dwarfism, without using the actual word. --Virginia Opocensky, formerly at Lincoln City Libraries, NE
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews:

From the time Ben is coming in a stroller to the park where they first meet, Alex and Ben are close friends. At five, Ben notices that he's getting much taller than Alex, and Mama explains that Alex will always be unusually small: ``It is how he was born.'' Later, after his special back operation, Alex sometimes needs a wheelchair; at the story's end, Ben is a head taller and ``can run faster than Alex, but [Alex] still tells funnier jokes.'' Russo's attractive illustrative style-- expressive, simply delineated faces and flat, generalized forms in intense, subtly modulated colors--reflect the text's cheerfully sensible approach to its serious theme. (Picture book. 3-7) -- Copyright �1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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