Cardboard Piano Book

When Debbie gives Tina a cardboard piano, she is sure that Tina will love it. After all, Debbie spent a long time making it, and it looks just like a real piano. Now Tina can learn to play, too. It will be so amazing.

But just because you are friends with somebody, and just because you are the same in most ways, doesn't mean that you will always see eye to eye.

Friendship can be tricky. Really, really tricky. Even for true best friends. Even for Debbie and Tina.

Publishers Weekly

Perkins subtly explores friendship in this understated, appealing picture book. Debbie (an older version appears in Perkins's All Alone in the Universe and the Newbery Medal-winning Criss Cross) and Tina spend their days "doing beautiful wonderful things"-playing dress up, making tents from bedspreads and talking. Debbie wants to share her piano lessons, too, and because Tina doesn't have a piano, Debbie painstakingly crafts a keyboard from cardboard so they can both practice. But she is sad when Tina loses interest. After questioning their friendship, Debbie ultimately concurs that a cardboard piano is missing the "best part," realizing that she and Tina share enough already. Perkins's dialogue, shown in speech bubbles, is spot on, and her watercolors reveal a range of underlying emotions in everyday moments. An animated DVD narrated by Perkins is also included. Ages 4-7. (Nov.)

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