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From School Library Journal

Starred review from June 1, 2024

Gr 1-4-High voltage fun for early elementary children. Zippy illustrations full of color and energy capture the evolving nature of a friendship between two boys. The kids connect through their enthusiasm for building. Their constructions fall apart more spectacularly each time, and they develop a close bond as they prepare for an ultimate project that will "stand the test of time." At the conclusion of this heartwarming story, what really is built to last is an enduring friendship. Full of Santat's signature imaginative illustrations accompanied by onomatopoeia and simple text, this story will be a seriously fun and endearing read. VERDICT Pitch perfect friendship-building fun! Highly recommended.-John Scott

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Horn Book

May 1, 2024
In this entertaining picture book, the duo behind Drawn Together (rev. 7/18) explores friendship and resilience through imaginative play. The two main characters first meet as toddlers after bumping into each other while playing with blocks. As they grow older, their friendship and their creations evolve: the ever-more-elaborate structures incorporate Asian mythological motifs and use a variety of materials, including cardboard, tape, wood, and paint. Each time, their project fails. An argument over the collapse of a creation leads to an important epiphany: "Some things are too important to give up on. Some things deserve to be repaired, no matter how many times they break." Le's succinct, expressive storytelling and Santat's vivid colored-pencil, watercolor, and digital illustrations are both energetic celebrations of these particular, fictional projects and friendships and a possible metaphor for all such creative collaborations (and those characters do bear some resemblance to their creators). Michelle Lee

(Copyright 2024 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Booklist

April 15, 2024
Preschool-Grade 2 Two friends (playful caricatures of the author and the illustrator as kids) are a happy team, building bigger and more elaborate constructions together--which, seen through their eyes, become elaborate fantasy creations, like gently smiling sea dragons and city-destroying monsters. But every finished project somehow ends up in pieces. As little guys, they laugh over the disasters and start again with even bigger dreams. But when their truly magnificent floating construction (Santat's splendid rendering of the iconic sea turtle swimming across the sky carrying a city on its back) crashes to earth, the ever-frustrated older boys are ready to call it quits as friends. On reflection, of course, they recognize that rebuilding is what their friendship is all about. Full of heart, with inventive art presenting wonderful detail in the imaginary worlds the pair concocts, this fourth picture book by the multi-award-winning duo of L� and Santat cheerfully undergirds the proposition that dedicated teamwork always pays off--because even a rickety result can fortify a friendship.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Kirkus

March 1, 2024
A friendship is built and tested. Two friends are brought together with a "BANG" when they bump into each other, knocking over the block towers they were working on. The children, who both have warm beige skin and short black hair, leave their individual projects aside to let their imaginations run wild as they create together. The results are spectacular, if prone to disaster: Their Great Wall is dismantled by a Chinese lion, their lantern-lit boat is capsized by a dragon, and a monster levels their cityscape. Still, the friends seem to find as much joy in the destruction as the building of each new structure. Then they start a new construction, one meant to "stand the test of time." When this, too, collapses, the friends find themselves at an impasse. Can they find a way forward together? Readers will have fun comparing the fantastical worlds the friends occupy with the cardboard-and-tape reality in which they are actually working. Onomatopoeic words are illustrated with force; "CRASH!" judders across the page, and "KABOOM" glows with intensity, promising a satisfying read-aloud experience. With inventive imagery and a relatable conflict, this is a winning selection for crowded storytimes and quiet bedtimes alike. A playful and captivating tribute to imagination and friendship. (Picture book. 3-7)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

January 22, 2024
When two kids bump into each other-one wears bright red spectacles, the other has a quiff of dark hair-their individually built block towers go tumbling. But rather than turn on each other, the two, each of whom bear a certain similarity to the book's creators, become avid construction collaborators. "Working hand in hand, we built things we never could have dreamt up on our own," Lê writes. Digitally enhanced watercolor and colored pencil drawings by Santat portray how the pair's increasingly complicated constructions take flight in their merged imaginations, as when an image of the Great Wall of China shown alongside a shaggy dragon is revealed to be a Tinker Toy mélange stalked by a house cat. The collapse of their most ambitious construction momentarily sends each kid to their respective corners, but their remembering "all the times we picked up the pieces and picked each other up" helps them reconcile and move on to another creation. The previous collaborators (Drawn Together) craft a personal-feeling celebration of partnership and a dual portrait of any successful creative pairing. Ages 3â€"7. Author's agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management. Illustrator's agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.