Stewart's Best Pen, written by Stephen W. Martin, reviewed by Klaudia Janek

Student Reviewer: Emily L.
Summary: The book Stewart's Best Pen is a story about the life of a boy named Stewart who went on a camping trip over the summer and found a pen. The pen’s name was Craig and he is a blue ballpoint pen. Stewart and Craig did everything together and were best friends. One day Strewart lost Craig and looked everywhere but could not find him. It turns out, Craig fell out of Stewarts bag and another kid picked him up! Then the kid went to Japan and took Craig with him. Craig and Sterwart then became pen pals and wrote each other often.

Straight Talk for Librarians: This book is very cute in its design style. Its cartoonish and the medium is water color, as well as some elements of what looks to be digital art and collage. The cartoons are hilarious and will make readers laugh aloud at the shenanigans going on in the story. Readers will love this adorable story about the unbreakable bonds of friendship. This book would be a perfect recommendation for a student who has a friend moving away. It illustrates that you can stay in touch through letters. This would be a great book for an IB PYP school library because it has global connections and it would be a perfect read aloud before engaging in a pen pal program. I also think it would be a good choice for a budding writer or artist. There really are some special pens out there that lead to inspiration and make the creativity flow.