What is cuter than an elephant and a mouse best-friend pair? Not much once you’ve read “Big and Little Are Best Friends” by Michael Garland. This picture book is picture perfect.

From the rhyming to the artfully crafted sentences which read out loud beautifully to the illustrations in which there is just enough detail to keep the main characters, the mouse and the elephant, at center stage, the story is lovely.

Young and mature readers will enjoy some of the paradoxes that this pair presents. While “Little looks stern, Big acts silly.” Followed by “Big wears plain, Little wears frilly.” So Big is basically a bowler-wearing silly guy while the mouse, Little, is stern but adorned in an extremely outrageous pink, rose-and-ribbon-trimmed hat that would be the envy of any “church lady.”

But the book isn’t just a cute picture book with opposites, it’s also about how sometimes friends who may be as “different as day and night…can sometimes fight.” But they always make up, and the lesson learned is that it’s okay to be yourself. There is no need for people to change just because they are different from their friend(s).

This is a picture book that children will ask for over and over again. It’s just such a lovely book — in every way — that kids will sense that and love it.

Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by the publisher, Orchard Books, for review purposes.