I LOVED the art style of this book, but the storyline was a bit hard to follow. As an adult, I understand where Avi is going during the winter, but children might not, so that needed to be explained a bit more. And it's kind of funny at the end that Havi totally forgets about Avi when he meets Daisy (it made me think of men who ditch their women for a new, shiny object...so I'm not sure that's what we want to be teaching our children).

Thank you to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial, and Jack Gee for the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader's Copy (ARC) in exchange for my honest review/opinion.

Thanks NetGalley for the e copy. This was definitely a cozy book. I liked the color scheme and the illustrations but it was a bit wordy for my taste.

True Friendship: A Musical for Avi (Tales From The Woods)
by Jack Gee
Having the ability to guide e your friend the support they need. Havi wants to share his talent. His fear does not let him miss that his friend was not there. So Havi played and prayed for his friend.
A cute story of friendship and acceptance. Good resource for social emotional learning.

Follow Havi as they get ready to perform a concert for all their friends. In this story we may even see a touching reunion between old friends.

I think I preferred this to the first and look forward to any future adventures Havi may have. They were themes of friendship, reunion and love. This would be a perfect bedtime read with your child.

The illustrations are delicate and at times whimsical. They really add to the emotion of the story.

I was really struck by how beautiful these illustrations were, using a unique, dreamy colour palette and feeling really cosy. The story was lovely, slightly bittersweet as it explored friendship. Wording was a bit clunky in a few places and interfered with the flow of reading. Overall a nice story.

Thanks to the author, publisher and Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for the DRC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed the overall story of True Friendship, and I liked how colorful the illustrations were. I think the story was a little long to keep a child engaged throughout the book.

Cute book. Sweet drawings and an interesting story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the copy of the ARC.

I liked the art work. The story itself was ok but nothing extraordinary. The story was long for the age I think it was targeting. I wouldn't personally purchase it but would be happy to read to my child from the library

Illustrations are beautifully done and have used colours in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming to look at.

Definitely a good children's library book for schools to have in their collection in addition to educators and social workers. The book teaches valuable lessons to children and is aimed at a primary school audience.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this book for free in exchange for my review! All opinions are my own.

This book touched my heart. I didn't know a children's book could make me emotional, but this one did. I adored this book, and highly recommend it. The illustrations were darling and the story was all around beautiful! I loved this one!

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I wanted to like this, but it was severely lacking in many places for me. It wasn't all bad, but could use some work.
The storyline of this book was hard to follow and I can see it being confusing for children. Why was Avi gone? Why is she coming back? Why is she leaving again? It's not clear that this is a cycle. It's also not clear what the goal of this book is because there are too many elements in play. Avi and Havi are friends, but Avi makes only a brief appearance and then time jumps considerably. Then Havi gets a new friend that's the same species as him and seems to forget Avi in the end? There are seasonal elements at play, there's music, there's friendship, but there's not a clear reason as to what this all means and why it's there. There's no meaningful plot.
The text was also set strangely in some places, making it difficult to track. And there was far too much text for a picture book like this where the text is overlaid on the image.
I do think the author's heart was in the right place with this book, but it needs a developmental editor or something.
The illustrations were very nice and in a different style than you see mostly, which I appreciated. The illustrations were the best part of the book for me.

This was such a cute book!
From the art to writing, it really does show that friendships are strong, even when they are apart for a while, and even when you're sad one friend leaves, there are always more friends around the corner

True Friendship is a mildly bittersweet yet hopeful story that revolves around Havi and Avi - a trumpet-playing rabbit and a playful doe - as they confront the inevitability of a shifting world. Though their forest home will continue to change with the seasons, their friendship remains steadfast, and I think this book showcases the power of that bond quite well through their interactions. The artwork also has a sketch-like quality to it that fits the story beautifully.

My only real critique is that, at times, the chronology was difficult to follow. The story would abruptly jump long periods ahead with little transition, causing me to have to read the relevant passages an additional time. The typesetting also was hard to read in areas (black text against marginally darker colors), though this might be more attributable to my reading a digital ARC.