To celebrate the launch of her pre-school book series Mini Monster, author Caryl Hart has picked out five recommended 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.
Together We Can is a celebration of all the different forms and types of friendship. Crammed with a huge diversity of characters (and animals!), with a wide range of interests, this joyful book looks at what a friend is, how to be a friend, how to make friends, and the value of being together. It offers gentle suggestions on combatting loneliness, taking turns, saying sorry and finding commonality with others. Every child will be able to find someone like them within the pages of this book.
Together We Can has been chosen by Save The Children for their #SaveWithStories appeal. You can listen to the book, read by actress Freya Allan, here.
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!
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.”
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.
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!
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Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?
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yes
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