Bob Schwartz

I could go on and on about the genius of the late James Marshall and his most beloved creation, the hippos George and Martha, two best friends.

You may think that these illustrated stories are for children, and you would be right, but far from completely right.

As an example, the very first of these 35 stories is Split Pea Soup.

Martha has cooked split pea soup for the two of them. George doesn’t like the soup, but doesn’t want to hurt Martha’s feelings, so he pours it into his shoes. Martha catches him in the act:

Martha said, “That’s silly. Friends should always tell each other the truth. I don’t like split pea soup very much myself. I only like to make it. From now on, you’ll never have to eat that awful soup again.”

“What a relief!” George sighed.

“Would you like some chocolate chip cookies instead?” asked Martha.

“Oh, that would be lovely,” said George.

“Then you shall have them,” said his friend.

If you think that the message is so saccharine and cliched that even a child, let alone a sophisticated grownup like you, would find it over sweet and oversimple, you have not met George and Martha.

When you do meet them—and you should by buying George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends—you, your own George or Martha, or any children in your life, will wonder how you got along without them.

When I searched today for appreciations of George and Martha, I found one from the New York Times in March 2018. The writer, Amy Bloom, explains how important George and Martha could be in those challenging times (you recognize why those times and these are similarly challenging):

“The Collected Stories of George and Martha: Two Best Friends” is all 35 George and Martha stories. I would recommend buying the book, with its glorious bright yellow-with-pink-flowers cover, and enjoying Sendak’s foreword. I would display it right where guests would see it even before they take off their coats. And I would hope that their exposure to George and Martha would act as lemon juice on scurvy, derailing some of the more predictable and dispiriting dinner party conversations of 2018.