Two of the best life-long skills we can teach our children is how to make friends and how to maintain healthy relationships with them.
One of the easiest ways to make new friends is by playing with other kids, but play can have its challenges for children. From finding someone to play with, to paying attention to their friends’ needs, to honouring their own needs, figuring out how to interact in a way that ensures everyone gets along can be tricky.
If you are looking for some books to help your children learn or remember these skills, we’ve got you covered.
The first book is A Best Friend for Bear by Petr Horáček. In this story, Black Bear is lonely and decides to find a friend. While he is out searching, he meets Brown Bear who is also hunting for a friend. Since neither one has had any luck on their own, they decide to search together. This heartwarming and adorable tale reminds us that finding friends doesn’t have to be difficult and it can happen in unexpected ways. You just have to try. For ages 3 to 7.
Another book about unexpected friendships is A Letter to My Best Friend by Yangsook Choi. In this story, Jihun needs to write a letter to his best friend for a school project. There’s just one big problem: he doesn’t have one. He only moved to America a month ago and he’s not the best at writing in English yet. Still, his teacher encourages him to try. As he tries to write a letter, his thoughts turn to Oto, the cat who was his best friend in Korea. He ends up writing a really neat letter to Oto. If you’ve recently moved and are worried about your kids starting over, this is a great book to read with them. It lets them know that it’s okay to cherish and grieve the friendships you’ve had in the past and it shows them that you can still make new friends even when you’re nervous or sad. For ages 4 to 8.
The third story is Listen up Louella by Ashley Belote. Unlike the first two books, which are about making new friends, this story is about growing current friendships. Louella is an elephant, and she is excited to go to Roar Scout Camp because there are many things to do with her friends. Unfortunately, she struggles to play well with the other animals because she doesn’t listen to them, she doesn’t take turns with them and she doesn’t notice when she’s barging in and ruining their play. While her lack of listening causes a lot of frustration for the other animals, it mostly hurts Louella. But when she finally learns to listen, she is able to be a best friend. For ages 4 to 7.
Another book about the importance of being aware of what’s going on around you is You Go First by Ariel Bernstein and illustrated by Marc Rosenthal. In this tale, Cat and Duck are super excited to play on the slide at the park. Only, when they get there, it’s a bigger, curvier slide than they expected and Cat is terrified. As Cat, who is a very good friend, tries to get Duck to consider all of the options, he ends up scaring Duck and now Duck no longer wants to go down the slide either. But instead of being relieved that they can go and do something else, Cat is just sad that Duck will miss out on something she was so excited for, so he tries to fix it. This book, with it’s surprising ending, is a great story about trying new things. For ages 4 to 8.
Finally, it’s also important for our children to be aware of their own feelings. In Aqua Boy by Ken Wilson-Max, Aaron loves everything about the ocean he lives beside. Everything except putting his head underwater. As he struggles with the allure and fear of swimming, his parents and siblings remind him that he will get there in his own time. When he does, it’s in one of the most magical ways possible. This beautifully illustrated tale is about environmentalism and taking care of the ocean beside us, new friends and letting yourself be comfortable taking your own time. For ages 4 to 7.
I hope these five books help you and your children play, laugh, explore, find new friendships and gain a strong sense of self-confidence.
