One Cool Friend was written by Toni Buzzeo and illustrated by David Small. It was published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2012.
Elliot is a “proper” boy and goes to the aquarium with his father one day. Elliot wants a penguin and his father gives him $20 to buy one thinking that he’ll get a plush penguin. Elliot lives with the penguin and have fun until his father discovers that...
I looked up the website www.penguinOnIce.com and it’s for sale for some ridiculous amount of money. I have no idea what kind of a sick joke this is but the author should get his brain checked for adding something stupid like this in a picture book (Elliot learns this web address at the library).
Besides that, this book is very well done. The illustrator seems to be a master of caricatures.... he exaggerates everything very well and you can see that the ink from his pen flows very naturally. Some of the drawings in the aquarium are a delight to look at since he forms a bizarre looking interior with quick lines of a blue colored pencil. The background are all well done with a lot of white space...
The story is a strange one... I didn’t really get the Captain Cook reference and I seriously doubt any children would be able to get it too.
One Cool Friend is a nice fantasy on the idea of owning a wild pet... I’m sure most kids get these crazy ideas when they visit aquariums or zoos and it’s nice to have a book that allow children to imagine that fantasy.