annieb123
Written on Mar 7, 2021
My Best Friend Is Extinct is an illustrated chapter book aimed at middle grade readers by Rebecca Wood Barrett and illustrated by Cornelia Li. Due out 16th March 2021 from Orca, it's 240 pages and will be available in paperback and ebook formats.
This is a whimsical adventure for middle grade readers with lots of action, animals, an exciting imaginative plot, and beautiful illustrations. Ten year old protagonist Henry befriends a short nose bear (extinct) and tries to help Yarp (the bear) and his family escape being eaten by the fangers (saber-tooth cats). There's lots of action and fantasy realism liberally sprinkled with epic snowball battles.
The book isn't perfect - there were several plot developments that saw me raising an eyebrow... but it's not written for adults, even well meaning ones. It seems to me that it would play very well to the 8-12 year old audience. I would recommend it for public or school library acquisition, gifting, or for a group read or classroom story time (when we can gather again).
Fun and full of action. Four stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.