Friendships are critical to the human experience and they are particularly important in childhood. Our friends can shape us, define us and support us.
Here’s a collection of books exploring the concept of friendship in childhood.
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Threads by Ami Polonsky
The day twelve-year-old Clara finds a desperate note in a purse in Bellman’s department store, she is still reeling from the death of her adopted sister, Lola.
By that day, thirteen-year-old Yuming has lost hope that the note she stashed in the purse will ever be found. She may be stuck sewing in the pale pink factory outside of Beijing forever.
The lives of two girls–one American, and one Chinese–intersect like two soaring kites in this story about loss, hope, and recovery.
Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? by Leslie Connor This
This book truly embodies the power of reading to experience life in someone else’s shoes and gain a new perspective impossible to find without it. Connor introduces us to unlikely best friends: Aurora and Frenchie. Aurora is energetic, loud and full of life while Frenchie is quiet, contemplative and non-verbal. Bound together by their love of nature, but newly separated into different sixth grade classrooms, Aurora and Frenchie learn to find new rhythms and routines. But when Frenchie goes missing, Aurora’s life is turned upside down as she works to find Frenchie and use her big personality to find her friend. Told in alternating chapters, Connors not only introduces us to Aurora and Frenchie, but shows us how connected we all really are to those around us, connections that should be celebrated and appreciated.
Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden
This book follows the lives of four distinct, yet ultimately connected, characters exploring who they are, who they want to be and how they fit into the world that doesn’t feel welcoming to them. Alternating chapters give an inside view into each character’s reality and leave the reader questioning their own beliefs and potential actions. What would each of us do to make this child feel valued? What unintentional messages might we be sending by doing what we initially feel is right?
I’m not sure how Ann does it, but once again, she wrote straight into my heart and my own relationships. Knowing the pain of what is right, but what is done to keep the peace instead. Knowing the bonds that are forged over the fear of change, rather than the excitement of growing. This book so artfully explores how to remain true to yourself when the world feels like it is against you and to wholeheartedly believe in your bones that you are enough, just the way you are.
The Circles All Around Us by Brad Montegue
This is the story of a circle. When we’re first born, our circle is very small, but as we grow and build relationships, our circle keeps getting bigger and bigger to include family, friends, neighbors, community, and beyond. Brad Montague originally created Circles as an Instagram video adorably narrated by his kids, and now this picture book adaptation is the perfect way to start a conversation about how to expand our worlds with kindness and inclusivity–even if it seems scary or uncomfortable.
I Am a Bird by Hope Lim
Every day, a little girl rides to school on the back of her father’s bike. As they twist and turn through the streets, the little girl spreads her arms like wings and sings her birdsong for all to hear. But when they pass a strange woman in blue who carries a mysterious bag, the girl goes quiet until the woman is out of sight. One day, when they’re running late, the little girl discovers what the woman does with her bag each morning—a surprise that transforms her wariness into a feeling of kinship to be celebrated.
Every Little Kindness by Marta Bartolj
Every Little Kindness by Marta Bartolj is a strikingly beautiful book with a big message, all without a written word to be found on the page. This wordless picture book does not need text to take readers on a powerful journey of kindness. The beautiful images moving from character to character bring the lesson to life.
The overall theme of this book is simple: One small act of kindness leads to another and may ultimately come back to you in spades.
What is Love? by Mac Barnett
“What is love?” a young boy asks. “I can’t answer that,” his grandmother says, and so the boy goes out into the world to find out. But while each person he meets—the fisherman, the actor, and others—has an answer to his question, not one seems quite right. Could love really be a fish, or applause, or the night? Or could it actually be something much closer to home? This tender, funny tale is an original take on the “I love you” story, a picture book treasure for all ages to read and cherish.
Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena
Milo is on a long subway ride with his older sister. To pass the time, he studies the faces around him and makes pictures of their lives. There’s the whiskered man with the crossword puzzle; Milo imagines him playing solitaire in a cluttered apartment full of pets. There’s the wedding-dressed woman with a little dog peeking out of her handbag; Milo imagines her in a grand cathedral ceremony. And then there’s the boy in the suit with the bright white sneakers; Milo imagines him arriving home to a castle with a drawbridge and a butler. But when the boy in the suit gets off on the same stop as Milo–walking the same path, going to the exact same place–Milo realizes that you can’t really know anyone just by looking at them.
Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo
Raymie Clarke has come to realize that everything, absolutely everything, depends on her. And she has a plan. If Raymie can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days ago with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie’s picture in the paper and (maybe) come home. To win, not only does Raymie have to do good deeds and learn how to twirl a baton; she also has to contend with the wispy, frequently fainting Louisiana Elefante, who has a show-business background, and the fiery, stubborn Beverly Tapinski, who’s determined to sabotage the contest. But as the competition approaches, loneliness, loss, and unanswerable questions draw the three girls into an unlikely friendship — and challenge each of them to come to the rescue in unexpected ways.
Wish by Barbara O'Connor
Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets
Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.
You Go First by Erin Entrada Kelly
Twelve-year-old Charlotte Lockard and eleven-year-old Ben Boxer are separated by more than a thousand miles. On the surface, their lives seem vastly different—Charlotte lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while Ben is in the small town of Lanester, Louisiana. Charlotte wants to be a geologist and keeps a rock collection in her room. Ben is obsessed with Harry Potter, presidential history, and recycling. But the two have more in common than they think. They’re both highly gifted. They’re both experiencing family turmoil. And they both sit alone at lunch.
Over the course of a week, Charlotte and Ben—online friends connected only by a Scrabble game—will intersect in unexpected ways as they struggle to navigate the turmoil of middle school. You Go First reminds us that no matter how hard it is to keep our heads above troubled water, we never struggle alone.
The Queen Bee and Me by Gillian McDunn
The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman
Life is tough on the teeming streets of Chennai, India, as runaway sisters Viji and Ruku quickly discover. Fortunately, the girls find shelter – and friendship – on an abandoned bridg that’s also the hideout of Muthi and Arul, two homeless boys. The four of them soon form a family of sorts, sharing food and supplies and laughing together about the absurdities of life.
Padma Venkatraman’s moving survival story brings to light the obstacles faced by young people n many parts of the world, and is inspired by the children she met during her years in India. Her heroic characters will touch readers with their perseverance and unwavering love for each other.
Pax by Sara Pennypacker
Pax was only a kit when his family was killed, and “his boy” Peter rescued him from abandonment and certain death. Now the war front approaches, and when Peter’s father enlists, Peter has to move in with his grandpa. Far worse than being forced to leave home is the fact that Pax can’t go. Peter listens to his stern father—as he usually does—and throws Pax’s favorite toy soldier into the woods. When the fox runs to retrieve it, Peter and his dad get back in the car and leave him there—alone. But before Peter makes it through even one night under his grandfather’s roof, regret and duty spur him to action; he packs for a trek to get his best friend back and sneaks into the night. This is the story of Peter, Pax, and their independent struggles to return to one another against all odds. Told from the alternating viewpoints of Peter and Pax.
Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow
A Library of Lemons by Jo Cotterill
Calypso’s mum died a few years ago and her emotionally incompetent Dad can’t, or won’t, talk about Mum at all. Instead he throws himself into writing his book A History of the Lemon. Meanwhile the house is dusty, there’s never any food in the fridge, and Calypso retreats into her own world of books and fiction. When a new girl, Mae, arrives at school, the girls’ shared love of reading and writing stories draws them together. Mae’s friendship and her lively and chaotic home – where people argue and hug each other – make Calypso feel more normal than she has for a long time. But when Calypso finally plucks up the courage to invite Mae over to her own house, the girls discover the truth about her dad and his magnum opus – and Calypso’s happiness starts to unravel.
Harriet Spies by Elana K. Arnold
Harriet Spies is a delightful book sure to appeal to a wide range of middle-grade readers. In it, we meet Harriet, a young girl staying at her grandmother’s bed and breakfast on Marble Island for the summer while her mother is home on bed rest waiting for her baby brother to arrive. Harriet has an honest heart and feels deeply but tends to lie to others without thinking. A lot. So when one of her grandmother’s guest’s binoculars goes missing, they have trouble believing she did not play a role in their disappearance. Together with her new friend Clarence, they set out to find the missing binoculars and prove Harriet’s innocence. This book has everything a middle grade novel needs: strong, relatable characters, real life experiences and a satisfying ending for all, not to mention a powerful life lesson of telling the truth to yourself and others. This is the second book in the Just Harriet series and will delight fans of Harriet the Spy and Ramona Quimby.
