Title: Making Friends: A Book About First Friendships
Author: Amanda McCardie
Illustrator: Colleen Larmour
Publisher: Walker Books
Genre: Children’s picture book
Book format: Paperback
Sweet Strawberries: 
Description: Sukie, Joe, Poppy and Stan are making friends!
Join them as they learn about meeting new people, being kind, celebrating differences and standing up for each other.
*Free copy provided by publisher for review…
Review: This is a fun picture book celebrating and showing all the best things about making friends. When Sukie begins at a new school she doesn’t have any friends yet. Getting to know some of the other kids isn’t easy at first, but soon some of the children are nice to her and she finds it easier and easier to connect. As Sukie’s friends meets her friend’s friends, they all start to get along and are there for each other no matter what happens. ‘Making Friends’ is a bit larger and wider than A4 in size and is filled with lots of colourful illustrations and text on some nice thick and glossy paper.
To be honest I wasn’t sure what this book was going to be like when I opened it up, but as you read about Sukie and how things are for her as she begins school it actually reads like a fiction story. At first it’s about Sukie making friends with some of the other children and then the book moves on to show what friendship is like, and how how children can be there for each other, confide in each other, and don’t have to worry about any differences they may have with others. I actually like the way this book showed all of these aspects within the pages and how at the back of the book there is an index showing where you can find examples of the children being brave, kind, etc.
Although the book may not have much to it on first glance, it’s actually a very clever book showing children how they can be good friends to others as well as maybe also showing children how friendships shouldn’t be. As someone who didn’t have many friends when I started school I think I would have liked reading this book as it would have been a valuable one to show how to get to know others and what to expect in a friendship. It’s certainly a good book that I think classes of children would benefit from looking at, and the pictures really lend to how appealing this book is to read!
There are illustrations throughout and with some detail to them which I like. I enjoyed seeing Sukie and some of the other children mentioned in the book appearing on various pages throughout the story. As things happen to Sukie and her friends, such as Sukie trying to be nice to someone but them not being nice back or one hf her friends getting nervous during a class display, I like how all of these emotions are so clearly shown on the kids faces and how they all look different and how easy it is to recognise them all. I really enjoyed the double page images especially towards the end when the whole class is in view and you can see how all of the children are acting.
Overall, although I was unsure what to think of with this book when I first opened it up, it’s turned out to be a really brilliant picture book and one I wish I had to read when I was younger and new to school and nursery. It’s such a lovely book, celebrating the good things that happen with friendships and I think it would be a good book to show any children what to expect and how to be a good friend. It’s a book I’d recommend and one which I’m sure children will like to look at more than once.
What do you think of this book? Do you think it’s good to teach children the importance of good friendships? Let me know what you think in the comments below 🙂
The Strawberry Post 