Sarah Ayoub (text), and Mimi Purnell (illustrator), How to be a friend, HarperCollins Publishing, Nov 2023, 24 pp., RRP $24.99 (hbk), ISBN 9781460763230
What it means to be a good friend.
Friendships are daunting, challenging, and a little confusing when we are little (or at any age really!). What is the best way we can make and keep friends? How to be a friend serves as a guide for young folk on how to navigate being a friend by highlighting all the wonderful things we can do to be that good friend to one or many people. It also demonstrates the rewards of being a good friend, and the benefits of taking the time to nurture and foster a true friendship. On the first page the illustration by Mimi Purnell is beautifully succinct – planting a flower is so similar to starting a friendship; it requires patience, love and dedication to grow and bloom.
The rhyming prose by Sarah Ayoub provides a delightfully upbeat, sing-song style to the story, which captures the positivity of the message throughout the book. The reader cannot help but read the melodious text and then absorb the beautifully detailed illustrations that compliment the story. There are rainbows, butterflies, bubbles and more, as the reader is encouraged to feel uplifted and motivated to take care with their friendships and watch them grow into something amazing and rewarding.
Recommended age 3+, but all readers of this book will feel a surge of warmth and enthusiasm towards nurturing new and old friendships.
A genuinely heartfelt follow up to The Love that Grew, also by Sarah Ayoub and Mimi Purnell.
Reviewed by Lauren Harcombe
Here is a second review
This book starts with the question Do you know what it takes to be a friend …? It then goes on to give suggestions of all the qualities which make up true friendship, such us helping us up if we fall, taking turns and sharing, generosity and giving, apologising after mistakes. There’s a slight emphasis on the fact that friendship is not instant and takes time to develop but then lasts a long time. Making friends starts with us, the reader.
Purnell’s illustrations are muted in colour, with lots of earthy greens, yellows and browns, and splashes of colour in the children’s clothes which also show our multicultural community. Most of the events are outdoors, but there are enough indoor locations to reinforce that friendship happens everywhere and anywhere.
I am not sure who the intended audience is, though I think it will probably appeal more to adults who like the sentiments included, rather than children. The language used is at times quite complex suited to readers in the first years of school, but with discussion, readers who are much younger should be able to understand the concepts. The publishers’ blurb accompanying the books uses the words heartfelt and sweet.
The book doesn’t quite work for me, but there are sure to be many others who will enjoy it.
Reviewed by Maureen Mann
