With A Little Help From My Friends, the book feels hollow and short

The title to the post, With A Little Help From My Friends-the book, might seem odd; but it’s necessary to put it that way because the song has been turned into a children’s illustrated book. This is a children’s book that’s written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, or rather, it has the song’s lyrics as the written narrative for a story.  I’m not going to go all ‘back in my day’ or ‘kids these days’ because half of the genius of The Beatles was the lyrics to the melodies that they created. It’s also undeniable that With A Little Help From My Friends is an amazingly catchy song. The illustrated book is slightly more forgettable and that’s ironically due to the song.

The art in the book is from Henry Cole. It’s drawn in an incredibly detailed pencil style that’s mainly black and white, with the occasional bit of color thrown in there. The art is lovely, but the premise of the book feels odd. The book is also very sparse in its lyrics. Some pages don’t have anything written on them and most of them only have two short sentences. From a literary perspective, it’s closer to a wordless book, with lyrics by Lennon and McCartney.

The illustrated story has two young girls who are great friends. Unfortunately one of them is moving away to another city. If only there was a way for two people to get by when they’re feeling challenged by the altitude. Me? I get high with a little help from my friends. They pick up me up, make me feel better and lift me out of the doldrums.

If you’re singing along to the song it is full of hope, love, friendship and finding someone to share things with. In printed form the book feels like a ploy to get hipster parents who want their kids to love The Beatles as much as they or their parents liked them. Another issue is that when you’re reading the book you’ll default to a faster reading pace then the illustrations and page naturally dictate. However, if you’re so inclined, the text and presentation of the book is fine for ages 4-8. Although the older half of that range will tire of the book quickly and put it into the baby stack.

It’s that pacing issue when you first hear Layla, the unplugged version and then tried to juxtapose that with the version that you already knew. With A Little Help From My Friends is like that, but even shallower because it’s not the original artist and it’s far more fluff and filler than satisfying book. As an even shorter board book it might’ve worked, that could be an idea for future books based on songs from The Beatles.

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