In the after­word to The Best Trea­sure, Sher­ri Man­del quotes an old Jew­ish proverb: ​“Who finds a faith­ful friend finds a trea­sure.” Her pic­ture book illus­trates this say­ing by way of a sim­ple, touch­ing mes­sage and del­i­cate, col­or­ful art.

Gavi, a kan­ga­roo with a capa­cious pouch, and Mo, a hip­popota­mus, are good friends who are search­ing for trea­sure. Their prob­lem is that they do not agree on the mean­ing of the word trea­sure, and, as anoth­er old proverb teach­es us, one per­son­’s trea­sure is anoth­er per­son­’s trash. Gavi sees val­ue in the many bright, shiny objects that they dis­cov­er along the way; Mo thinks these objects are noth­ing but junk. But after an adven­tur­ous after­noon of hunt­ing for trea­sure, they agree on one very impor­tant thing: that the best and most valu­able trea­sure of all is deep and abid­ing friendship.

This warm, com­fort­ing sto­ry reminds read­ers about the joys of true friend­ship. There is much to appre­ci­ate about each oth­er, even when we have dif­fer­ent out­looks and opinions.