Another Story That Dovetails in the Middle

I'm slightly goosebumpy about this coincidence: Last year on almost exactly this date I wrote about how my one example of Stories That Dovetail in the Middle had suddenly turned into a collection of three.

Here's the newest addition to the collection. It doesn't quite fit because you can't read it from either end towards the middle. However, it DOES have a two stories that work towards and away from the middle, so I'm including it!

Artie and Julie
by Chih-Yuan Chen
Heryin Books, Inc., September 2008
review copy provided by the publisher

Artie is a lion; Julie is a rabbit. Their parallel stories are told on split pages. At the same time Artie is learning to stalk and eat rabbits on the top half of each page, Julie is learning is learning to run fast and jump high to protect herself from lions on the bottom half of each page. (I'm predicting that kids will love these little "books within the book" and the mirroring of the stories!)

In the middle, both young animals are deemed to be sufficiently trained to venture out on their own. Both Artie and Julie get distracted by a jellyberry patch. Their stories come together full-page when a storm comes and they both seek shelter in a cave. By the time the sun comes out, they are friends. Their stories split again when they return home, and they each tell a new story to their parents that night -- the story of how lions and rabbits can become friends.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR:

From the Gecko Press site:

Chih-Yuan Chen, three-time winner of the prestigious Hsin Yi Picture Book Award, is an illustrator and writer from Taiwan.

"It is my hope that children from all over the world can learn to accept different people and things, and see the world with broader views and minds."

From the Kane Miller site:

Chih-Yuan Chen lives and works in Taiwan. Born in 1975, Chen is tall and thin, and does not like to wear suits. He does, of course, like to take walks.