The fictional children’s book A Splendid Friend, Indeed written and illustrated by Suzanne Bloom is Pennsylvania’s One Book, Every Young Child 2007 selection. Using pastels against a blue background, Suzanne Bloom depicts a child-like Goose pestering his fuzzy friend the Polar Bear as he tries to read and write. After Goose brings Bear a snack, a blanket and a note, Bear is touched, and realizes what a good friend Goose is. Bear gives Goose a big hug before they sit down together for a snack. Bloom believes there is a little bit of goose and a little bit of bear in all of us.

In this video Bloom confides that though this read-aloud book is fiction, she got the story idea from observing real life. It turns out that her dad once bothered her, just like Goose bothers Bear, as she sat at the kitchen table trying to think and read and write. “I don’t have to make this stuff up,” she says. “I just have to pay attention.”

For Bloom, drawing pictures to illustrate a story is the icing on the cake. She has been scribbling and painting since she was three. And she didn’t stop filling the page with color and details as she grew up. In an autobiography she wrote in sixth grade, she expressed a desire to write and illustrate children’s books. She pursued that dream as a college student at Cooper Union, a private full-scholarship college for art, architecture, and engineering in New York City where she drew, painted, and made sculptures for four years.

Bloom describes her work as play and her play as her work. When she is writing and drawing, she feels like a detective searching for clues or a chef concocting a tasty treat. Bits and pieces of her real life find their way into her illustrations, including her kids and her cats. She enjoys talking and reading her books to children when she visits schools, but she also likes to return home to her messy desk. For Suzanne Bloom, writing and illustrating her own books for children is the job she has always wanted.

To read another fictional book about the joys of friendship, check out this online digital book about a lonely freeway cat who lives in a car and makes a new cat friend Axle the Freeway Cat .

For reasons to write in every day life, check out this music video sung by children from "Between the Lions" Reasons to Write.

To read about the challenges of keeping a friendship, check out this online digital story of how Monty the raccoon lies and breaks the trust of his friend, Fritz the rabbit I Wouldn't Tell a Lie.

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