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Bink & Gollie by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee, illustrated by Tony Fucile
Candlewick, 2010

Bink, a small girl with wild blonde hair, lives in a homey little cottage while Gollie, a tall brunette, lives in a tidy modern home in a tree (yes, a treehouse!). Through the course of three short chapters, the girls have small adventures which demonstrate the ups and downs of friendship.

Bink & Gollie is absolutely delightful. The girls, apparent best friends and near-constant companions, seem to have little in common. Gollie has an outwardly calm demeanor and uses a charmingly old-fashioned vocabulary  - '"Greetings, Bink," said Gollie. "I long for speed"' (p. 3). Bink, on the other hand, has a disheveled look about her and her actions are propelled by emotion and other drives, such as hunger. Together, they work to find compromises when they have disagreements and do their best to see one another's perspective.

The illustrations are as charming as the characters themselves. Tony Fucile uses colour to accentuate components in his predominantly grey-scale drawings, from signs in store windows to a new goldfish. Bink and Gollie themselves are always in full colour, and one touch I especially enjoyed was the smudge of orange to indicate Fred in the frozen pond on the final page. Although there are many details within the illustrations (like Gollie's treehouse, which I now covet), care was taken not to detract from the two girls.

A wonderful collaboration (which makes me wonder if DiCamillo is more like Bink and McGhee is more like Gollie, or vice versa*) with an endearing result.

*Read this article to find out!




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