Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Home > Give Me Five! > Books About Friendship

Books About Friendship

icon - give me 5
Books about friendship

To celebrate the launch of her pre-school book series Mini Monster, author Caryl Hart has picked out five recommended books about friendship.

Martin Waddell
 & Helen Oxenbury
Picturebook

An oldie but a goodie, Farmer Duck is one of my all time favourite books for so many reasons, not least because of the way it demonstrates the power of friendship and working together. A poor, overworked duck is made to slave away on the farm by the lazy old farmer, who spends all day in bed. Seeing their friend so sleepy and weepy and tired, the other animals decide to take a stand! They tiptoe up to the farmer’s bedroom, tumble him out of bed and chase him away! Then they all pitch in together to run their farm. For me, this book is a total classic!

Emma Chichester Clark

Before this book was published, Emma created daily illustrated posts on twitter, based on her relationship with her adorable little dog, Plum. I found them totally endearing, funny and poignant and so was delighted when she announced the publication of a big, fat, fully illustrated book version in 2014. Not only is this a sweet diary of Emma’s friendship with her dog, and Plum’s friendship with her doggy pals, it’s also a little peek into Emma’s life. Gorgeous!

Caryl Hart
 & Tony Neal
Picturebook

Meet the Mini Monsters, four adorable characters who are learning valuable lessons about friendship and how to get along, in a pre-school setting. In this story, Sparkle is putting on a magic show with Arthur, but when Scout wants to join in, Sparkle is not happy. After some heartache, Sparkle soon learns that playing together is much more fun. Hooray!

Author Caryl says: “I am in love with the design of this book, the colour scheme, backgrounds and illustrative details are really, really clever and Tony Neal has done a great job of capturing the personalities of these loveable characters.”

Linda Sarah
 & Benji Davies
Picturebook

Brit and Etho are the best of friends. Every day they take their cardboard boxes to the top of Sudden Hill and turn them into adventures. But when Shu comes along, their comfortable two-by-two relationship is changed and Brit finds it difficult to adjust. Eventually, with much persuasion from Etho and Shu, Brit learns that three-by-three can be even better. This heartwarming story explores the feelings of insecurity many of us feel when a new personality comes along, and shows children that it is okay for friendships to change over time. The story inks to the whole school value of ‘friendship’ and can be use with individuals or small groups of children experiencing friendship issues (e.g. when three children are finding it difficult to share each other) or for helping established friends to welcome new friends into their group.

Karl Newson
 & Kate Hindley
Picturebook

This book very cleverly identifies our similarities and differences and demonstrates how these enhance our every day lives. The sparse, rhyming text jogs along beautifully and the wonderfully funny, detailed illustrations are full of humour, joy and affection. This book provides a brilliantly simple way to explain the advantages of difference to young children in a warm and entertaining way. Top marks!

Booklists you might also like...

Subscribe to our newsletter

Your Review

Stone Girl Bone Girl

review

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?

yes

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Any other comments

Any other comments