I Don't Care

by Julie Fogliano, Molly Idle (Illustrator), Juana Martinez-Neal (Illustrator)

Overview

Two Caldecott honorees—and real-life best friends— team up to illustrate a story of friendship from bestselling author Julie Fogliano.

Like the two stars of this story, illustrators Molly Idle and Juana Martinez-Neal know that differences only make a good friendship stronger. In this bouncy, rhyming story, two best friends think about all the little things that don’t matter– and the big things that really, really do.

Mostly I care that you’re you and I’m me,
and I care that we’re us,
and I care that we’re we.

With each artist designing and drawing one character, and collaborating on the scenery and details, Molly Idle and Juana Martinez-Neal transformed this sweet story into a celebration of friendship– including their own– and a unique artistic vision.

Working remotely, they swapped drawings across the country, using a limited palette of teal and yellow over graphite. As artwork passed back and forth between their mailboxes, childhood versions of each artist came to life and came together on the page into one unified creation.

Award-winning author Julie Fogliano’s rhythmic rhymes bring it all together, expressing the unconditional love any best friend can relate to.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823443451
Publisher:	Holiday House
Publication date:	11/22/2022
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	127,117
Product dimensions:	9.70(w) x 9.60(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 6 Years

About the Author

Julie Fogliano is the New York Times bestselling author of, among other tiles, And Then It’s Spring and If You Want to See a Whale as well as the poetry collection, as well as Just in Case You Want to Fly, illustrated by Christian Robinson. Recipient of the 2013 the Ezra Jack Keats award and two Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors, her books have been translated into more than ten languages. Julie lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and three children.


Molly Idle's work as an author-illustrator includes the Caldecott Honor Book Flora and the Flamingo, Flora and the Penguin, Flora and the Peacocks, Flora and the Chicks, Flora and the Ostrich, and Tea Rex, Camp Rex, Sea Rex, and Santa Rex, among other books, including Pearl, an original fable about a mermaid who learns the power of one small act. She lives with her family in Arizona, and invites you to visit her at idleillustration.com.

Juana Martinez-Neal is the author and illustrator of the Caldecott Honor winning book Alma and How She Got Her Name. She also illustrated La Princesa and the Pea by Susan Middleton Elya, for which she won a Pura Belpré Illustrator Award, Babymoon by Hayley Barrett, Swashby and the Sea by Beth Ferry, and Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard, which won a Robert F. Sibert Medal. Juana Martinez-Neal lives in Connecticut with her family. Visit her online at www.juanamartinezneal.com.

Editorial Reviews

09/26/2022

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. “I really don’t care what you think of my hair/ or my eyes or my toes or my nose,” begin rhyming lines, running through an ample list of attributes that the book seems to portray as superficialities. With soft graphite strokes and linocut highlights in teal and yellow, the illustrators draw two young children, portrayed with skin the color of the paper, who each sport blunt-cut hair and sturdy boots. They’re leaning against the same tree, arms crossed, looking studiously away from each other. With every line, though, their hard feelings thaw, and they’re soon playing together on the page, as the litany turns from “don’t”s to “do”s and each speaker voices what’s at stake in their friendship: “I really do care/ that you always play fair/ and you don’t change the rules/ when I’m winning.” While not every reader will be comfortable with a friend who offers sidelong critiques (“I really don’t care if your lunches smell weird”), the alternating speakers’ loyalty (“and I care that we’re friends/ and I care that we’re true”), and images of shared experience following conflict, add warmth to this testament to faithful companionship. Ages 3–6. Agents: (for Fogliano and Idle) Steven Malk, Writers House; (for Martinez-Neal) Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel, Full Circle Literary. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

★ "Fogliano's sprightly, rhythmic text sets a fun tone for exploring what really matters in friendship. 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."—Booklist, Starred Review

★  "A psychologically acute tally of friendship’s most solid foundations, worth sharing with audiences large or small and tailor-made for reading aloud."—School Library Journal, Starred Review

★ "A friendship book made by friends. . . . Fogliano's deftly rhymed verses, which never miss a beat in their cadence or in their emotional resonance, help readers realize that while the friends don't care about surface matters like appearance, attire, or possessions, they do care about each other. Compositionally, they end up occupying shared space on the spreads and will doubtlessly take up residence in readers' hearts, too. . . . Show you care by sharing this book with others."—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"[An] enchanting, energetic picture book. . . . Idle and Martinez-Neal each took responsibility for drawing one of the children, and their care and respect for each shines through in the affection between the characters. . . . Fogliano's verse has the bounce and joie de vivre of a game of hopscotch, making it a joy to read aloud in a group or one-on-one setting. . . . This ode to the bestie bond perfectly captures the essential foundations of friendship in any stage of life."—Shelf Awarness

"[A] testament to faithful companionship."—Publishers Weekly

"[An] enjoyable collaboration."—The Horn Book

From the Publisher

★ 11/18/2022

Gr 1–3—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. Like their expressions, which start out as scowls but change partway through to smiles and exchanged glances, the incantatory lines begin in forbidding tones ("i [sic] really don't care what you think of my hair/ or my eyes or my toes or my nose") but shift key for the important things: "i really do care/ that you always play fair…," going on to "and i care if you smile/ and i care if you're sad/ and i care if you're worried/ and i care if you're mad," on the way to "and i care that we're always/ and i care that we're two/ and i care that we're friends/ and i care that we're true." The lighter haired of the twosome is ambiguously gendered, and 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 that goops up such similarly themed titles as Carmela Coyle's Do Princesses Have Best Friends Forever? or Monica Sheehan's Love Is You & Me. VERDICT A psychologically acute tally of friendship's most solid foundations, worth sharing with audiences large or small and tailor-made for reading aloud.—John Edward Peters

School Library Journal

★ 2022-06-22
A friendship book made by friends.

Fogliano’s title may prompt thoughts of Sendak’s Pierre, who doesn’t care—until he encounters a lion. There aren’t any perilous felines in this picture book, however, and there are two protagonists. At first, one child occupies the verso, with teal highlights in the grayscale graphite-and-linocut illustrations. The other is on the recto, with yellow highlights. It appears they are at odds, with the gutter between them seeming to symbolize an emotional barrier as opening text reads, “i really don’t care what you think of my hair / or my eyes or my toes or my nose.” Soon, though, subtle changes in facial expressions and posturing reveal the friends’ true feelings as Fogliano’s deftly rhymed verses, which never miss a beat in their cadence or in their emotional resonance, help readers realize that while the friends don’t care about surface matters like appearance, attire, or possessions, they do care about each other. Compositionally, they end up occupying shared space on the spreads and will doubtlessly take up residence in readers’ hearts, too, with lines like “but mostly i care that you’re you / and i’m me / and i care that we’re us and i care that we’re we” sealing the deal. Both children have skin the color of the page; one has darker hair, while the other has lighter hair. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Show you care by sharing this book with others. (Picture book. 3-8)

Kirkus Reviews