George and Lenny Are Always Together
Jon Agee
Scallywag Press
George, a brown bear and Lenny, a grey rabbit, are inseparable friends, something they discuss as they play on the swings in the playground. George seems one hundred per cent enthusiastic about this whereas Lenny wonders out loud what it would be like to be alone. ‘what if being alone is just as much fun as being together?’ he suggests but George feels this is impossible, saying so as he zooms down the slide. However, Lenny is determined to find out and tells his playmate that he’s off to find somewhere quiet to be alone.
When George offers to accompany him, he gets a flat refusal and eventually decides to try going it alone as well. Off goes Lenny to test his plan
and savvy George allows his friend sufficient space to practise some solitude. It’s fun, decides Lenny: ‘I can draw! I can build! I can blow bubbles! … Read a book! I can even just sit and think.’ He can also think about George and wonders if he’s found a good place to be alone: but where is his bestie? Has he too found the perfect place and if so where is it?
Told entirely in dialogue and through Agee’s characteristic images outlined with bold black strokes, this portrait of togetherness and a little bit of that vital me-time, is a powerful demonstration that it’s possible to have too much of a good thing, but that’s something everyone needs to discover for themselves.
