A delightful story told with simple words and charming pictures. Young readers will cheer for the bird in its attempts to bring two aardvarks together.

This is the story of two aardvarks and a little bird who tries to get them together. Aalfred and Aalbert are both lonely. They are the only aardvarks around, but they have not met. Aalfred slept all day and Aalbert slept all night. They also like different things and worried about different things, but thought it would be great to be part of a pair. The little blue bird tried everything to bring them together, but nothing seemed to work. Until, something did. This is a cute book about being friends and helping friends. Even though they were so different, they were still able to be friends. It's a funny little story with quirky pratfalls and delightfully silly illustrations. When I read the synopsis, I realized that this is an LGBTQ story, which I did not even pick up on, but it works. I read this to my granddaughter and she didn't really connect with this story, perhaps she is a bit too young for it.

This is a charming book starring two radically different aardvarks who live opposite lives.

"Aalfred loved stars, broccoli and picnics."
Aalbert loved flowers, sunshine, and cheese.
And they both loved sleeping quite a bit, except..."


... and that tiny word "except" kept the two aardvarks apart because Aalbert slept all night and Aalfred slept all day. Although they liked their separate lives they conjured up thoughts that perhaps having another aardvark in their lives would make them even more happy and content, but alas that probably would never come to pass.

A little bird who observed the two came up with a plan to try to connect the duo together so their lives would be more complete and blissful if they had someone to share it with.

Can a little bird become a successful matchmaker and have the aardvarks meet up and hopefully become fast friends?

This book is a portrait of two aardvarks who after many failed attempts finally connect and decide to share life's journey together. The engaging colourful illustrations are full of expression and activity. "Aalfred and Aalbert" is a fun book to recommend to you.

I received an electronic ARC from Myrick Marketing & Media, LLC through NetGalley.
Charming picture book about two aardvarks who live opposite lives. A friendly bird thinks they would enjoy meeting each other and tries various means to make this happen. Eventually, it succeeds though the bird is indirectly involved.
Terrific book to use to talk about opposites and having different interests.
The illustrations bring the two aardvarks and the bird to life for young readers.

Why don't more authors write about aardvarks? They have a certain charm with their snouts and big ears. And this book is certainly charming. Hood hints that in their completely opposite lives Aalfred and Aalbert are inherently complementary. Hints but doesn't belabor the point. We're left to draw that conclusion for ourselves. Cute.

I received a free ARC from NetGAlley in exchange for an honest review.

This was a cute book with colorful pictures. The text was short but engaging. It wasn't too deep of a book or too long, but it was fun.

Book of opposites for littles. Story of two aardvarks- one sleeps all day, the other all night, so they have similar experiences. illustrations are simple and uncluttered looking and I suppose they will look wonderful in color. Nice enough and what kid doesn't love aardvarks!

Simple, short and sweet. A story about friendship at first sight that will warm your heart.
#Aalfredandaalbert #Netgalley

A lovely story with lovely illustrations. Though some may find the subject matter "controversial", I though it was very wholesome. The schemes the little bird comes up with are silly and really fun. The broccoli hat was my favorite.

Classifying this as an LGBTQ book is a real stretch. I don't know if I would've even picked up on that if I hadn't read the synopsis. What's wrong with two people just being friends? Why does everything have to result in two people (or aardvarks, in this case) getting paired off? Aalfred and Aalbert are both so solitary that they don't even have any other friends; you'd think their priority would simply be getting to know other like-minded aardvarks... not searching for a life partner. But that's the premise this book goes with, subtly teaching kids that everybody needs to be in some sort of monogamous, two-person relationship, even if all you want to do is have someone to play badminton and share your cheese with.

The pictures are kind of cute, I guess, and I like the aardvarks' names (I thought they were Dutch at first, though I'm pretty sure it's just a play on the double "a" in "aardvark"), but I think the message of the book is just too "off" for me to really like it. Maybe if Aalfred and Aalbert had been shown having other friends, and simply wanting a special aardvark relationship in addition to all the others, I might have liked it more. It's not like they weren't nice guys; Aalfred is shown trying to cheer the little blue bird up, so we can tell he's kind. Which makes it all the more puzzling why both of these aardvarks are such loners...

For me, Aalfred and Aalbert are just friends. They're not shown doing anything particularly couple-ish, so I don't know why there's such a push to shoehorn this into the LGBTQ category.