Published Work
Available wherever books are sold
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- Title: I Don’t Care
- Publisher: Neal Porter Books – Holiday House
- Release Date: November 22, 2022
- Author: Julie Fogliano
- Illustrators: Molly Idle and Juana Martinez-Neal
- Age Level: 3-7, 32 pages
- ISBN: 978-0-8234-4345-1
A New York Times bestselling author and two Caldecott Honorees share their delight in the little things that set two friends apart, and the big things that bring them together.
I really don’t care what you think of my hair
Or my eyes or my toes or my nose
I really don’t care what you think of my boots
Or if you don’t like my clothes. . .
Mostly I care that you’re you and I’m me
And I care that we’re us and we’re we.
This rhythmic, rhyming text by award-winning author Julie Fogliano celebrates the similarities and differences between two unlikely best friends. It will be illustrated by two recent Caldecott Honorees, each depicting one of the characters, Molly Idle and Juana Martinez-Neal.
★ 2023 Bank Street College Best Children’s Books of the Year
★ 2022 Society of Illustrators Original Art Selection
★ Evanston Public Library’s 101 Great Books for Kids 2022
★ Publishers Weekly’s New and Noteworthy Children’s and YA Books October 2022
- Publishers Weekly – Cover Reveal: ‘I Don’t Care’ Has a Backstory of First Evers and Friendship
- 100 Scope Notes – Books from Pura Belpré Winners
- U.S. Book Show 2022: PW Editors’ Picks Panels
- Fuse 8 – Newbery/Caldecott 2023: Fall Prediction Edition
- Evanston Public Library – 101 Great Books for Kids 2022
- Publishers Weekly – New and Noteworthy Children’s and YA Books: October 2022
- Shelf Awareness – Molly Idle and Juana Martinez-Neal: Our Best-Friendshipness
- SLJ Fuse 8 – 31 Days, 31 Lists: 2022 Picture Books
- Bank Street College of Education – Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2023
★ (…) will doubtlessly take up residence in readers’ hearts (…) Show you care by sharing this book with others. —Starred review
★ While effective picture books grow from the combining of words and images, this book takes the collaboration a step further by drawing on the talents of real-life best friends and Caldecott honorees Idle and Martinez-Neal (…) The result is a warm, loving celebration of how to be a friend, and a successful artistic experiment. —Starred review
★ In silken soft graphite scenes with teal and yellow highlights, two children—each drawn by one of the two illustrators to be self representative—deliver a lesson in values that also happens to be as moving a declaration of close friendship as ever was (…) along with being easy on the eyes and written in language and cadences that particularly lend themselves to choral reading, this warm, wise, lyrical expression of togetherness is refreshingly clear of the sentimentality (…) A psychologically acute tally of friendship’s most solid foundations, worth sharing with audiences large or small and tailor-made for reading aloud.. —Starred review
Horn Book:
It’s all about the body language in this enjoyable collaboration (…) Thoroughly charming notes from each illustrator close this winning outing.
Two galoshes-wearing playmates rhapsodize in harmony about their friendship in the enchanting, energetic picture book (…) Caldecott Medal Honorees and real-life best friends Molly Idle (Pearl) and Juana Martinez-Neal (Zonia’s Rain Forest) provide the illustrations of the adorable child characters, whom they based on their younger selves (…) and their care and respect for each shines through in the affection between the characters (…) This ode to the bestie bond perfectly captures the essential foundations of friendship in any stage of life.
Accompanying fervent text by Fogliano (My Best Friend) that tumbles forth in a burst of confessions, friends Idle (Witch Hazel) and Martinez-Neal (A Perfect Fit) team up to create a visual story about friendship. With soft graphite strokes and linocut highlights in teal and yellow (…) images of shared experience following conflict, add warmth to this testament to faithful companionship.