by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 16, 2010

"Friends Go Adventuring" is another funny children's book by Helme Heine. He's both the author and illustrator of the book, but each role seems to get a full dose of enthusiasm. As a writer, he tells the story of three farm animals who escape their daily routine. But as an illustrator, he contributes bright watercolor paintings with a sense of humor all their own.

While the hens on the farm lay a thousand eggs, its poor Charlie Rooster who has to gather them all up. Heine shows this dilemma in a wonderful watercolor showing two lines of nesting chickens, which spreads across two pages, over a drawing of the rooster hurrying to catch dropping eggs! Meanwhile, all the pigs are required to eat continuously in order to fatten up, though a tiny pig named Fat Percy decides this is too much. And even the farm's mouse is discontented, because the cat who usually chases him has been relegated to constructing mousetraps!

I especially liked Heine's drawing of the cat's tricky contraptions. There's a maze with no exit, a tiny hangman's noose, and something that looks like a bed of nails. In the foreground, next to a toolkit, the cat pours over a curling sheet of architectural plans. And beside a box - and some stray nails - peeps the disappointed mouse.

But soon the three friends have left for adventuring - the rooster, the pig, and the mouse. First they confront a fox who's kidnapping the goose princess and her five geese sisters. Heine's next drawing shows their precarious rescue of a calf trapped on the cliff of a steep mountain peak. Turn the page, and the mouse has discovered a treasure map in a bottle...during a snowstorm. But one page later they're trying desperately to escape a band of pirates - and their trained shark.

Heine supplies his characters with one adventure after another. On the island there's a cannibal who's also a greedy cook. The travelers end up stranded in a bright yellow desert. And Heine's prettiest illustration is probably their ride home. The tiny animals are seen in a black silhouette - on the back of an enormous elephant. They pass a leafy tree - also shown in silhouette - as an enormous red sun sets in the background. They're returned to their farm - "special delivery".

And back on the farm, they share their stories - "of princesses and pirates, snowstorms and deserts, of cannibals and buried treasure."

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.