Best Frints at Skrool

by Antoinette Portis

Yelfred and Omek are back and this time they're going to skrool in Best Frints at Skrool, the hilarious sequel to Best Frints in the Whole Universe by award-winning writer/artist Antoinette Portis.

Genres: Picture Books, School, Friendship, Aliens, Humor, Space, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

Published June 26, 2018

About the author

Antoinette attended the UCLA School of Fine Arts and is a former creative director at Disney. She lives in Southern California.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boy did this book take me back - 5th grade and my two best friends - Gary and Mike - a nice trip back for an old guy to take! Really fantastic art!

[Alex Baugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is another school story that addresses common school fears through an alternative means - here it is through alien children from the planet BoBorp. And my kids love it (or maybe they love hearing me trying to read it without stumbling over the words). Skrool isn't terribly different on BoBorp than it is on Earth. Kids learn to sit quietly when their skreecher speaks, to keep their tentacles to themselves, to read and count, and make new frints at recess. Frints play and share their lunch with each other including new best frints Yelfred and Q-B, but no one is very frintly with lonely Omek. When Omek tries to share with Yelfred and Q-B, the result is a food fight, and before they know it, the yunch ladies have them in a time out. But Omek, Yelfred and Q-B are still hungry. Yelfred invites them to his house after skrool for some spewd and before long there are three best frints. This is a silly story about inclusion and navigating school friendships and kids will certainly be able relate to both Omek and besties Yelfred and Q-B, but will also see how easy it is to have more than one best friend. Check out the endpapers for a BoBorp glossary, how to count and how to play eye ball on Boborp. If you're lucky, your kids will soon become fluent in BoBorp just as mine did.

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pair of alien buddies start school (or rather, skrool) together. One of them begins to feel left out when the other makes a new friend.
This one is silly. Many of the words are substituted with alien nonsense words. I think the kids will dig it. Good job, Antionette Portis! I continue to enjoy your work.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I especially liked the "spewd flight" (food fight), which the Boborpians call sharing lunch.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good, and still more or less as funny as the first. But please don't make more. The joke has been told and it's time to move on.

[Hyacinth · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I understand the story, this book didn't sit well with me. I have seen too many children thinking stuff like this is right. I see them spelling words wrong on spelling tests. When they are older, they can get it but in the formative years, correct words and diction is needed.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading the first book Best Frints in the Whole Universe with my former kindergarten and 1st grade students, so I was excited when I saw this one on the shelf. As others have mentioned, it's better for a read-aloud than for a child to read independently as the alien "language" may frustrate them. A simple story about a best friend getting another friend, and the choice whether to become a trio or not. It's told on a foreign planet that operates very similarly to Earth but the aliens speak a slightly different language. "Some stroodents read bloox. Others eat them."

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Age: Kindergarten-1st grade

Omek and Yelfred go to skrool, just like kids on planet Earth. They learn to count, they read books (or eat them), and they have friendship problems, like when your best friend starts hanging out with someone else. After a cafeteria food fight, Omek and Yelfred become friends again with another to join their group.

The made up words will make this a delight to read aloud, for readers that love to add voices to their stories. Listeners will delight at the silly differences between school on Boborp and their own school.

[Roben · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are so many new things to learn when you go to skrool! Even on the planet Boborp.

Don't miss the bus.
Make new frints. But don't forget the old ones.
Learn how to count from one to ten in Boborpian.
And - fighting with food in the cafeteria is really not a good idea. You don't want to mess with these lunch ladies!

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

July 2018 - it's delightful to return to Boborp, where Yelfred and Omek are starting skrool. Some of the alternate words feel a tiny bit more forced than in the original, but the counting is funny. Too bad that so much fun stuff on the endpapers is hidden in library copies - I wish publishers would consider that.

[Sheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is a humorous story of friendship among frints at skrool. Read aloud to children and easier to read by themselves above first grade as the words are confusing until they have mastered reading themselves. But the tongue twisters and misbehavior of the frints and the solutions to their problems are inventive. And the illustrations of the actions are colorful and help decipher the story.

[Ampersand Inc. · Rating 4 out of 5]

New "fints" book; the frints go to school. Portis has a whole new hilarious language.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting ready for school book but with ALIENS. Fun read with funnier word sounds.

[Beth Kakuma-Depew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not just a Back-To-School story - this is the second volume of the Frints World. Alien World Fantasy for preschoolers. This would be perfect for Space Adventure loving early elementary kids.

[Marissa Elera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the first best frints and this is a hilarious follow-up!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute! Read it out loud...trust me.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and colorful story about school on another planet. Food fights are frowned on there too.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The vocabulary had my daughter and I giggling the whole story. Cute, silly, with a thoughtful theme.

[Amy J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soooooo funny and fun.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

In this sequel to Best Frints in the Whole Universe, best alien friends Yelfred and Omek are headed back to school on planet Boborp. But meeting new friends at school can be difficult, just like on Earth. Omek finds himself on the outside looking in as Yelfred has fun with a new friend. (A red, cube-like alien named Q-B.)

But when a food fight breaks out, Omek jumps in and helps Yelfred and Q-B throw food back at the instigators of the fight. But

"Yunch ladies on Boborp do not think so much sharing is a good idea."

The students involved in the fight stand by the Quiet Wall so they can think about what they've done. But Omek, Yelfred, and Q-B are only thinking about the food they thew and didn't eat. They are hungry.

"You guys want to come to my howst after skrool for some spewd?"

And basically, that's how two good friends became three. They meet for a friendly game and some food after school.

What Concerned Me: Joining in a food fight, or even taking sides when others throw food at your friend, didn't quite work for me. Yes, they had to sit in an alien equivalent to time out on Earth, but did they ever feel bad about what they did? Nope. They thought only about being hungry. I'm pretty sure two wrongs, having food thrown at you then throwing food back, don't make a right.

That said, I had a terrible time getting past reading a book with made-up language. I'm not the one to appreciate this book since the story was very common and the text didn't work for me.

What I Liked Most:I can imagine that some kids will like the made-up language and the use of aliens in a picture book. The bright pink and purple friends add a red friend to their group. The bright colors in this book are sure to work for children.

http://debbieshakespearesmith.blogspo...

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this sequel to the Best Frints in the Whole Universe, best friends Yelfred and Omek head to school like all the children on their planet, Boborp. Just as was the case in the previous title, the author uses made-up words for familiar terms. They won't be all that hard for youngsters to figure out, but I certainly wouldn't have a beginning reader try to decipher the words. Probably, it's a title best shared aloud. Even though the story has an outer space setting, youngsters will easily relate to the activities that occur at school--reading, learning to count, following school rules. And they will surely understand how poor Omek feels when Yelfred makes a new friend, Q-B, and he feels left out. That is, he feels that way until he joins the two in a food fight and they make plans to play eye ball later on. It's all silly fun, and the author certainly knows how youngsters behave and feel, whether they are Earthlings or aliens. The very bright illustrations, created with pencil, charcoal, and a drawing tablet, feature scenes that are outlandish and attest to the science fiction nature of the story, even with its roots in human reality. It's not my cup of tea, but plenty of youngsters will love this sort of thing.

[Rose Rosetree · Rating 5 out of 5]

So there's a picture book introduction to SciFi. Gee, in this story all the characters are aliens. And they have their own special language, such as:

* Frints instead of Friends
* Threep instead of Three
* Yunch instead of Lunch

Hilarious and oh so clever! At least for the intended audience.

Also, to win gushing praise from jaded reviewers at Publishers Weekly, The Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, and School Library Journal, what else has been added to this story?

A few cliches about friendship. Only they won't seem like cliches, when cleverly disguised by words like "Best Frint."

For the intended audience, sure, FIVE STARS.

ALTERNATIVELY

For cooler parents, might I recommend "Harold and the Purple Crayon"? Or any book by the truly original, zany, and hilarious Daniel Pinkwater.

As an added benefit, you can read these picture books without trying to hide from your children... due to fear of losing face with yourself.

[Vernon Area Public Library KIDS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Omek and Yelfred go to skrool, just like kids on planet Earth. They learn to count, they read books (or eat them), and they have friendship problems, like when your best friend starts hanging out with someone else.

The made up words will make this a delight to read aloud, especially for readers that love to add voices to their stories. Listeners will delight at the silly differences between school on Boborp and their own school.

Reviewed by: Miss Kelsey, Youth and School Services, Vernon Area Public Library

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so fun to read! I loved the alien words that resemble Earth words so much! Children will giggle and laugh at how close they sound. The illustrations are so bold and vibrant and truly represent what is like to have friends. A true representation, one minute your friend is your best friend , the next second they are ignoring you. However, in the end, you come to find that they are your friends, and friends forgive each other.

[Gwen · Rating 1 out of 5]

The made up language made it harder to make it through the book smoothly so this probably wouldn't be a fun one for me to try reading to a group of kids. And the pictures depict a horrible story (which I get it, that's the point) about how kids should respect teachers and lunch ladies, and how the should treat other kids even. Not a fan.

[Jillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit easier to follow the made-up language than the first book, but still distracting. I'm honestly not sure whether a kid who hasn't been reading independently for very long will get the joke.
Meanwhile, *I* thought the story was hilarious, but would be leery of letting any kiddos know that. :-p

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readers will enjoy this new language on Planet Boborp as they see two young beings become frints. The play on words throughout will make readers laugh. They can use the pictures for clues to figure out what each word translates to in English. Fun and light read with a message about friendship underneath.

[Chance Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly humor might appeal to the right age group, but I'm not sure I'd ever choose this as a read-aloud. Unfortunately, the average kids in our district can't spell very well, and this book doesn't model good spelling.

[Anoush · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the planet Boborp, childrinx go to skrool instead of school and make frints instead of friends. Sometimes they're mean and sometimes they have a hard time sharing frints.

The words are silly and fun to "translate."

[Kaylynn Johnsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some kids will love these funny words, other kids with speech problems aren't going to be as amused. And I see some issues with reading, sounding out words, and promoting mistaken words in the real world.