Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

Starred Review A redheaded girl, longing for a best friend, peeks out her window and sees Zola, a new girl, arriving next door as two movers push a big box into the house. What is in it? Since it says "FRAGILE" and "HEAVY," it must be an elephant! The observant narrator smells toast, which of course is what the new girl must be feeding her elephant. Sounds of water splashing must mean Zola is taking a bath with her elephant. Hammering sounds must mean they are building a private pachyderm clubhouse! The intricate and surreal spreads show details of stars, balloons, bubbles, and boats. The intervening pages, in a subdued gray palette, reveal what the lonesome and sad newcomer is actually doing: covering her ears, washing dishes, and playing listlessly with her yellow canary while the adults unpack boxes. When the redhead bravely rings Zola's doorbell, magic happens. Children will love the surprise of what is really in that box, and how the two girls discover a wonderful friendship packed with imagined elephants, hot-air balloons, and even whales. Vivid pages abound with the gemlike layered mixed-media paintings in the signature style of this two-time Caldecott Honor Book illustrator. Whimsical and surreal details, both real and make-believe, celebrate the joy of pretending with a new friend.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

When Zola moves into the house next door, a young girl imagines all of the reasons why a friendship between them is impossible.Spying a giant moving box, the narrator immediately concludes that it contains Zola's pet elephant. Smelling toast, she imagines Zola merrily feeding her pet. In contrast, Zola is shown in a room piled with drab boxes, despondently taking tea and toast with only her pet bird for company. Each brightly bedecked fantasy about Zola and her pachyderm playmate is a facet of the narrator's cloaked fear of rejection by the newcomer. Readers are poignantly aware, through Zagarenski's contrasting gray compositions of Zola's actual circumstances, that she's lonely and bored. Finally, the narrator's lively imaginings provoke both curiosity and courage: "I like stories… / and clubhouses / and playing hide-and-seek / and taking bubble baths / with elephants." Her own stuffed elephant under one arm, she knocks on Zola's door, discovering that the huge crate contains—a sofa. "Okay, so maybe Zola doesn't have an elephant. / But do you know what she does have? // A new friend." De Sève's well-paced telling is charmingly abetted by Zagarenski's layered multimedia paintings. The artist's Klee-esque colors and signature symbols—stars, crowns, houses, bees, and more—will provide fertile ground for young readers' own imaginings. They depict both girls as pale-skinned, the narrator with fluffy red hair and Zola with straight, black hair.A lovely, nuanced collaboration. (Picture book. 4-7)

School Library Journal Starred Review (Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

PreS-Gr 2 A young girl has a new neighbor named Zola. Both girls' mothers think that they will be fast friends. But our narrator worries, what if Zola already has a best friend? Her imagination takes over when she sees a big box being moved into Zola's house. She's convinced it must contain an elephant, and why would Zola need her, if she already has an elephant with whom to play hide-and-seek, build a clubhouse, and to take bubble baths? The author and illustrator tap into the feelings of insecurities that young children face with the uncertainty of new beginnings. As the young girl frets over all of the reasons that Zola will not need her, Zagarenski captures these imaginings with her trademark illustrations full of crowns, stars, and swirls that sprinkle the page. The colorful, digital and mixed-media illustrations are offset when viewers see Zola's reality full of hard lines, gray palette, and empty space to show the loneliness and sadness that she is actually feeling moving into a new place. Finally, the narrator decides that all the things she imagines Zola having and experiencing are things that she also loves; she braves her feelings and goes to meet Zola. Zagarenski's textured and detailed illustrations will capture children's imaginations, and will have them enthralled as they follow the many smaller animal familiars through the pages. VERDICT A must-purchase. Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Library, OR

Horn Book

A young girl imagines that her new next-door neighbor, Zola, already has a best friend: an elephant. Hesitant to say hello, the narrator finally finds the courage to overcome her shyness and discovers a new friend. Gorgeous, sweeping, dreamlike illustrations fill the pages, conjuring up the story's fantasy elements and providing readers with an enchanting invitation to add their own interpretations.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

When Zola moves into the house next door, a young girl imagines all of the reasons why a friendship between them is impossible.Spying a giant moving box, the narrator immediately concludes that it contains Zola's pet elephant. Smelling toast, she imagines Zola merrily feeding her pet. In contrast, Zola is shown in a room piled with drab boxes, despondently taking tea and toast with only her pet bird for company. Each brightly bedecked fantasy about Zola and her pachyderm playmate is a facet of the narrator's cloaked fear of rejection by the newcomer. Readers are poignantly aware, through Zagarenski's contrasting gray compositions of Zola's actual circumstances, that she's lonely and bored. Finally, the narrator's lively imaginings provoke both curiosity and courage: "I like stories… / and clubhouses / and playing hide-and-seek / and taking bubble baths / with elephants." Her own stuffed elephant under one arm, she knocks on Zola's door, discovering that the huge crate contains—a sofa. "Okay, so maybe Zola doesn't have an elephant. / But do you know what she does have? // A new friend." De Sève's well-paced telling is charmingly abetted by Zagarenski's layered multimedia paintings. The artist's Klee-esque colors and signature symbols—stars, crowns, houses, bees, and more—will provide fertile ground for young readers' own imaginings. They depict both girls as pale-skinned, the narrator with fluffy red hair and Zola with straight, black hair.A lovely, nuanced collaboration. (Picture book. 4-7)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this tale by de Sève (A Fire Truck Named Red), a girl named Zola moves in next door to the narrator, a girl about Zola-s age. From the sounds and smells that make their way to her, the narrator imagines a charmed existence for Zola. A huge moving box, she decides, must hold Zola-s pet elephant. The smell of toast must mean that Zola is giving her elephant a snack (-Elephants get very hungry-), and the ruckus she hears is Zola and her elephant playing hide-and-seek (-There-s always thumping and yelling/ when you play hide-and-seek/ with your elephant-). Jewel-box artwork by Caldecott Honor artist Zagarenski recalls the exquisite detail of Persian miniatures. Lush, gold-splashed paintings show the improbable hijinks of girl and elephant, while moody blue spreads show what Zola is really doing: she-s eating toast all by herself, it turns out, and holding her ears against the racket made by a man with a hammer. The real elephant in the room is the fear of making new friends-a fear the narrator finally conquers. Readers may find themselves wishing not for a friend, but for an elephant. Ages 4-7. Author-s agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.)