978-1-939547-58-3
Hardcover
34pp, color
8in x 10in
Juvenile Fiction: Friendship
4 to 8
October 2019
$17.99
"This book does a wonderful job of demonstrating and capturing the beauty and wonder of unique friendships. Out of this world!"
— Deanna Smith, School Library Journal
"Some stories don't need words to make their meaning clear -- and some friendships can transcend barriers. Hello by artist and author Aiko Ikegami is a wordless picture book for children ages 4-8 that shows that the power of friendship and communicating can span across the galaxies, making it a unique and unreservedly recommended addition to family, daycare center, preschool, elementary school, and community library picture book collections."
— Midwest Book Review
“A beautifully rendered, sweet and quiet story about friendship. The pictures in this wonderful picture book will take you on an adventure that’s out of this world!”
— Barney Saltzberg, best-selling author of Beautiful Oops!
“A tender story showing the breadth of kindness and friendship — this book warms like a hug.”
— Shannon Habbas, Second Star to the Right Bookstore
Hello
By Aiko Ikegami
Some stories don’t need words to make their meaning clear — and some friendships can transcend barriers.
Junior Library Guild Selection
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection Award
Kirkus Best Picture Books of 2019
Golden Duck Notable Picture Book
Floyd's Pick Book Award
"Friendship can truly be out of this world.A pale-faced, antennaed intergalactic explorer zooms through space in a red and blue rocket. Landing in the countryside on Earth, the visitor first discovers a colorful, welcoming world. But in town, the color disappears, and gray adult humans stride past one another, staring at their handheld devices. Only the explorer is still shown in color, staring up in bewilderment and lost in the sea of gray. Ignored, the explorer sits alone until an Asian-presenting human child offers a red crayon and paper. Together they draw pictures and fold them into paper airplanes that fly through the air, until the human's becomes stuck in a tree. The explorer uses a gadget first to rescue the airplane and again when the child's ice cream falls off its cone. When the explorer receives a message on the gadget and gets back into the rocket, the two friends say goodbye. Once home, however, the explorer misses the friend left behind on Earth and sends a star-studded message of greeting—the only word in the book. Vivid illustrations are often multipaneled, like a graphic novel, and vary in perspective for storytelling and cinematic effect. The presumably adult explorer and human child are similarly short and sturdily built, lending them a pleasing visual consonance. Although wordless, this deftly expresses our simple need to build connections that can endure across a galaxy. (Picture book. 4-8)"
— Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews
"This wordless book chronicles a story of friendship of intergalactic proportions. Ikegami’s illustrations characterized by rounded shapes, softened edges and textured gradients of bold colors introduce a small alien. Clad in a red cape, blue jumpsuit, black boots with small pink antennae and a rounded face, it lands its red and blue ship on earth. Ready to explore the alien finds the closest city and quickly gets overwhelmed by the rush of the daily bustle, rendered in black and white. It is a young girl with black hair, pale skin, in a green dress, who notices and offers the alien a crayon and paper leading to a decorated paper airplane adventure. As the duo fly their planes the girl gets hers stuck in a tree which is quickly retrieved by alien’s remote device. A similar incident follows when the girl drops her ice cream, alien’s device saves the day again. Inevitably the new friends must part as alien returns to its homeland to report its findings. Ikegami ends on a heartwarming note for both the reader and young girl. Ikegami has written several other picture books all focused on friendships. A charmingly illustrated story, young children on the cusp of reading will have the opportunity to narrate this tale."
— International Examiner
