I love watching my daughter make friends everywhere she goes. I was an incredibly introverted child, so I am in awe of my daughter’s ability to always put herself out there and meet new people. Young kids have this incredible ability to make friends immediately, which we adults usually have trouble with. Today I’m thrilled to share a beautiful new children’s book about friendship that celebrates the beauty of those young friendships, and the way they develop.

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My Best Friend was written by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. This sweet story follows two young girls as they play together and develop a friendship. The girl who is narrating the story shares all of the fun things that they do together, and the reasons that she thinks that the girl is her best friend. The beautiful, detailed illustrations show the girls doing all kinds of creative activities that young kids will recognize and appreciate, from the joy of hiding together in a game of hide and seek, to the complete silliness of inside jokes that have them laughing for a long time.

The real beauty of this book is the surprising reveal at the end of the story. I won’t give it away because it was a beautiful surprise as a parent reading it. But the ending truly highlights the ability of young kids to make friends and enjoy every little detail of their relationships.

Best Friends

Make a list together of the qualities that you think a best friend should have. While your child’s list may be entertaining, it can also open up a conversation about what to look for in friends, as well as the good qualities that make you a good friend too.

Twisted Flowers

In the story, one of the little girls teaches the other how to twist trampled flowers together to keep them from falling over. We were inspired by this to create our own “twisted flowers” and practice our fine motor skills! I laid out a wide variety of pipe cleaners in different colors, textures, and styles. Then we created all kinds of different flowers by twisting and tying the pipe cleaners together. My daughter loved creating flowers to give to me, and I loved watching her creativity. They now sit in a vase in my room, brightening up the space and making me smile.

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Making Leaf Hands

In the story, one of the girls painstakingly removes the green parts from leaves to create “creepy skeleton hands”. My daughter was absolutely taken with this page, and insisted that we try the same. It was a bit difficult to find leaves to try this with since we are still in the winter months here, but we managed to get some skeletal looking hands out of the ones we found. This is a great activity for fine motor skills, as the detail work requires a lot of concentration and tiny movements.

Drawing Your Best Friend

In the book, the two girls draw each other in chalk. We decided that this would be a fun activity to try together. So I laid out two sheets of paper and a variety of drawing supplies, and we drew each other. It was a lot of fun trying to capture each other on the page. And of course it lead to lots of giggles. I loved seeing how she saw me, and she loved the picture that I made of her as well.

What are your favorite children’s books about friendship? Share in the comments below, and don’t forget to share this post with your best friend too!

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