August 25 – Kiss and Make Up Day

Happy Kiss and Make Up Day!

Even kids have arguments, fights, and disagreements. Picture books can help them understand the feelings behind the conflicts. In these funny stories, children can learn about compromise and peaceful solutions, and one slightly off-beat revenge plan!

Chicken, Pig, Cow’s First Fight written and illustrated by Ruth Ohi (2012)

In the series, Chicken, Pig, Cow the friends always get along, but in this book they have their first fight when Girl builds a block city. The friends are impressed, but Chicken thought it was missing something and Pig zoomed around too fast, and soon he ruins Chicken’s leaf statue. Pig unsuccessfully tried to fix it, and left to play with the ramp and Dog’s red ball. Pig’s ball crashed into the block city ruining the whole thing. Afraid that Dog might get blamed and be replaced with a cat, Chicken, Pig, Cow worked together to rebuild the city.

Monkey and Elephant’s Worst Fight Ever! written and illustrated by Michael Townsend (2011)

Monkey and Elephant have a huge fight which escalated into an enormous fight… the worst fight they ever had! It all started when Monkey saw a costume party going on in Elephant’s house, one he hadn’t been invited to, while he was delivering a cupcake surprise to Elephant. After he got over being sad, he was mad. He froze all of Elephant’s toys. Elephant couldn’t understand why Monkey would do such a mean thing. After he got over being sad, he was mad too! Elephant gave the Bunny family the keys to Monkey’s house. Monkey painted faces on Elephant’s butt while he was sleeping, Elephant painted over all of Monkey’s pet rocks, Monkey released all the smells in Elephant’s collection… things got so bad that the other animals were afraid for their own safety. Then Professor Duck came up with a plan. They moved Monkey and Elephant to a boat and left them in the middle of the sea while they were sleeping. When they woke up they found two things: 1) Elephant, who knew how to swim, had cement shoes and 2) Monkey, who didn’t know how to swim, had a box with a hammer and chisel. Monkey and Elephant were forced to talk to each other. They finally worked it back to the costume party that Monkey had not been invited to, when Monkey found out that it had been a surprise party for him he was sooooo embarrassed! The both apologized and hugged and made up. Then Monkey chiseled the cement off Elephant’s feet, and Elephant swam home with Monkey on his back. Everyone was happy to see them back… ‘HUZZAH!’

Gigi and Lulu’s Gigantic Fight written by Pamela Duncan Edwards and illustrated by Henry Cole (2004)

Gigi and Lulu were best friends. They dressed alike, brought the same lunches to school, and worked together at school. Then one day, Gigi and Lulu had a gigantic fight! It all started when Lulu blamed Gigi for knocking over her block house. And they decided to never talk to each other again. When their teacher announced that the next day they would celebrate Twin Day with a special friend, everyone was excited except Gigi and Lulu. Their teacher suggested that they each wear whatever they like the best and bring whatever they like the best for lunch. The next day, Gigi and Lulu find out that what the other liked best was not what they liked best, except for their green sneakers with the spotted yellow laces. They learned that they could be different and still be best friends.

Snowball Fight! written by Jimmy Fallon and illustrated by Adam Stower (2005)

Simple rhymes about a snow day when school is closed. A brother and sister prepare for a huge snowball fight. Brother is under enemy attack without ammunition. Little Sister has a secret plan that defeats the enemy. On the way home she get one last snowball down her brother’s back. They call a truce and have hot cocoa, but while she’s sleeping, he sneaks out to make a snowball and store it in the freezer for future use!