August 15 – Best Friends Day

Happy Best Friends Day!

(again)

We celebrated Best Friends Day on June 8th also. Read more about Eric Carle’s book Friends and Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad HERE.

Take a look at these picture books about best friends too.

Best Friends written and illustrated by Charlotte Labaronne (2003)

This is a funny little story for preschoolers about a lonely alligator named Alexander who goes about making new friends all wrong. When he meets Louise the lion, he’s sure he’ll finally have a friend, but he’s too shy to make friends with Louise and all the other kids play with her instead. Then Alexander get angry and knocks down Louise’s blocks, and blasts a horn in her ear, but when he splashed red paint all over her paper, Louise lets out a roarrrrr like Alexander had never heard before. Then he’s too afraid of Louise to play with her. Finally Louise asks Alexander why he doesn’t like her, and he says that he thought she didn’t like him. They work out their misunderstanding and learn to play together.

Best Friends written and illustrated by Steven Kellogg (1986)

This is a more involved picture book for older readers. Louise and Kathy are best friends who have an imaginary horse named Golden Silverwind who takes them on a trip to visit a witch who gives them magic hats and the power to make their neighborhood anything they want it to be. But one summer Louise’s aunt and uncle come to take her to a mountain resort for a vacation. When she leaves, the neighborhood becomes a desert for Kathy.  Kathy dreams of rescuing Louise and bringing her home, when she receives a postcard from Louise telling her how much fun she is having at camp. Louise just became Kathy’s worst enemy. Kathy wished that a volcano would blast Pine Cone Peak into pebbles. Then Mr. Jode moved in next door. He was an old man with a dog who was about to have puppies. Kathy planned on keeping all the puppies for herself and not sharing any with Louise, but Louise’s mother had already told Mr. Jode that Louise could have one when she got home from camp. Mr. Jode promised Kathy that she could have the first spotted puppy that was born. When the big day finally arrived, the girls went to Mr. Jode’s house. The problem was there was only one brown puppy born, and Kathy didn’t get a spotted puppy. The Louise suggested that they keep this puppy together and name him Golden Silverwind. Mr. Jode said he could build a doghouse in the middle between their houses and he could help them train the puppy. Now Kathy dreamed about sharing Golden Silverwind with her best friend, Louise, but when Louise went back to camp next summer, she was going to keep Golden Silverwind all to herself!