Lucy & Company

Author:  Marianne Dubuc
Kids Can Press (2016)

Lucy & Company by Marianne Dubuc is about four friends, Lucy, Dot, Marcel, and Henry. The book has three short stories inside it about the four friends and their daily adventures. The first story, the friends search for a place to sit and enjoy their snack. The second story, the friends look for a cozy spot to lay three baby chicks. The third story, the friends going on a treasure hunt to find an exciting surprise. Lucy and her friends always find a way to have fun while going on their adventures. Marianne Dubuc writes these fun, playful stories of everyday adventure to excite young readers. Lucy & Company by Marianne Dubuc uses illustrations, intellectual content, and organization skills to make her book worth a read.

Marianne Dubuc, uses illustrations to help set the mood and visualize the characters emotion. Throughout the book Dubuc places pictures on almost every page above the words. The words correlate with the pictures on the page. For example, in the second story it says "Next, they need to cross the bridge" (Dubuc, 2015) and all the characters are walking over the bridge together. All the pictures in the book are in a rectangular-bubble shape in the center of the page. The author uses pastel colors in her illustration to set a calm-relaxing mood. Dubuc also uses illustrations to show the characters emotions. For example, in the second story, the characters all go on a treasure hunt to find Henry's surprise, and when they follow the map and Henry starts to dig he discovers his surprise and you can tell by illustrations how excited and happy he is. The illustrations throughout the book help see the characters emotions and set the mood for the story.

Lucy & Company is an age appropriate book with lessons to be learned. The content in the story is just right for kids. It has content that isn't too in depth, but enough to make the children think and offers an opportunity for questions to be asked. Lucy & Company also offers a couple lessons that children can learn. One lesson of the book that children can take away is acceptance. Lucy & Company is about a group of friends which include a mouse, turtle, rabbit, and a girl, who are in search of fun and exciting things to do. Having such a variety of friends shows children that people come in different shapes, sizes, and colors and that's just okay. Another lesson that Lucy & Company offers is help a friend in need. In the first story, Lucy and her friends are up in the tree enjoying a snack but they all keep dropping them and no one else has anything else to eat, except Marcel. Marcel doesn't hesitate and splits his sandwich up and shares with his friends. Dubuc uses age appropriate content to make her story worth a read.

Marianne Dubuc's book, Lucy & Company is well organized making easy to follow. The stories are clear from begging to end. In the first story "The Snack", at the beginning Lucy goes and looks for herself somewhere to eat her snack. She climbs up a tree and sits on a branch. Slowly her friends start joining her to eat. In the middle of the story her and her friends keep dropping their snack and they try to figure out what to do. At the end of the story they realize that their friend Marcel, said "Everything except my lettuce sandwich" (Dubuc, 2015) and they all shared Marcels sandwich. The next story, "The Treasure Hunt", in the beginning Lucy finds a map and begins to follow it. In the middle, Lucy and her friends continue following the map to get to their destination. In the end, Henry digs the hole and when he finds the surprise, he realizes it was his birthday gift. The last story, "The Hatchlings", in the beginning, Lucy and Adrian find three eggs and try to figure out what to do with them. In the middle, the eggs hatch and three chicks come out. One of the chicks are sick and Adrian and Lucy must find a warm place to put it to help the chick get better. In the end, Lucy and Adrian find a spot snuggled up with Anton the bear. Even though Lucy & Company is one book with three many stories inside, Marianne Dubuc, organizes it so you know when story ends, and another is starting by the use of a title page. Having a clear story line and consistent flow, it makes it easy for young readers to follow.

Throughout the book Lucy & Company, the placement of illustrations and color scheme helps the reader visualize the characters emotions. Marianne Dubuc developed a story line that is appropriate for her attended audience by including lessons that children can learn and stories that children would be interested in. Finally, Dubuc organizes her story so it is easy to follow and is clear from beginning to end.  Lucy & Company by Marianne Dubuc uses illustrations, intellectual content, and organization skills to make her book worth a read.

Review by Madyson Farris