July 30 – Friendship Day

Happy Friendship Day!

June 8th was Best Friends Day. You can read my post here.

Today is all about friendship, not just your best friend. Picture books are great for showing kids the many different aspects of friendships. Choose a few from the list below to share with your child today. Or visit your local library or bookstore and pick up one of your favorites.

Friends! written by Elaine Scott and photographs by Margaret Miller (2000)

Friends are people who like each other. Scott and Miller provide young children with vocabulary and question prompts to discuss friendship. Easy to read text and photographs of real children, help readers understand the broad theme of friendship through their own experiences and those of others. Topics discussed include playing, sharing, learning, competing, helping, including others, trusting, accepting, disagreeing, finding solutions, fighting, respecting, celebrating, sympathizing, and listening. Readers learn that ‘friends are more valuable than… anything people can buy with money.’

Friends written and illustrated by Michael Foreman (2012)

Lucky the cat and Bubble the fish are friends. Lucky is heartbroken that Bubble is stuck in his tank, swimming round and round instead of running wild and free. One day Lucky gets an idea. He fills a bucket with water and takes Bubbles to the pond in the park. Lucky takes him to the river and then to the sea. Lucky encourages Bubbles to dive into the water and swim free. But Bubbles decides he’d rather go home. ‘There may be lots of other fish in the sea, but I might never find a friend like you.’ So now, Lucky takes Bubbles in his bucket whenever he wanders wild and free.

Nugget and Fang written by Tammi Sauer and illustrated by Michael Slack (2013)

Holy Mackerel! Can sharks and minnows be friends? You’ll be all smiles when you read this book. My Review