For kids, learning to be friends is so hard. Little kids struggle so much with right and wrong, playing together and what friendship really is. Luckily, there is a book out there to define friendship for children (and adults too!)
Friendshape by Amy Krouse Rosenthal uses the 4 basic shapes (circle, rectangle, square and triangle) to tell us about friendship. Rosenthal uses short simple sentences to tell us what friends are, and in a couple sentences what they are not. Every sentence starts with friend, so there is no mistaking what we are talking about.
The book is illustrated by Tom Lichtenheld (
Good Night, Good Night Construction Site Steam Train, Dream Train and
I Wish You More just to name a few
) and he uses simple pictures of the shapes, but the shapes are talking, giving us examples of what Rosenthal just defined a friend was.
I love the page that says, "Friends play fair..." and shows a picture of all the shapes flying a kite. The Circle says to Rectangle, "Your turn next ok?" What a great image that so many of our really young kids need today to understand that friends share and take turns.
Get this book for your child or your best friend because the inside flap says it best, "Friends shape who we are."
Happy Reading!
Laura
