“Forsythia is the narrator’s best friend, and she’s rambunctious and creative and brilliant. It opens like this: ‘Forsythia and I are best friends. She does things that amaze me.’ Awh, man! I want my friends to describe me that way. What a lot in one simple sentence. And who hasn’t had someone like that in her life? The next thing we hear is: ‘Forsythia can decorate the most incredible birthday cakes I have ever seen. This year she flew out of the cake she had made just for me.’ So we know it’s going to be one of those wackadoodle stories that’s just over-the-top enough to be worth a picture book. She performs in the circus; they have tea with zoo animals; and throughout the whole book she’s wearing heart-shaped sunglasses and sticky-outy braids (cause that’s how she rolls). When she’s feeling sick, it’s Chester’s turn to pull out all the stops to entertain his friend, and when the book heads toward the finish line with Forsythia saying, ‘Chester, you amaze me!’ my little heart gets all squooshy.”—Anna, University Bookstore, Seattle