Hooray!
It’s Perfect Picture Book Friday!
And what could be better under these stuck-inside circumstances than a new list of fantastic books with hopefully very time-consuming 😊 fun, entertaining activities to go along with them? (that will hopefully keep the little darlings busy for a loooooong time!) (oh, I’m sorry, did I say that out loud?! 😊)
You know how Christmas and birthdays with babies, toddlers, and young children often make you feel that you could have foregone the gifts…because all they want to do is play with the box?
I figured, what with all of us holed up in our homes (possibly feeling like we’re IN a box! 😊) this would be a good day to have a story about friendship and boxes and activities that are all kinds of things you can do with a cardboard box!
Title: Big Friends
Written By: Linda Sarah
Illustrated By: Benji Davies
Henry Holt & Co, January 2016, Fiction
Suitable For Ages: 4-8
Themes/Topics: friendship, loneliness, imagination, play
Opening: “Two cardboard boxes, big enough to sit in, hide inside. Birt and Etho take them out each day, climb Sudden Hill, and sit in them.
Sometimes they’re kings, soldiers, astronauts. Sometimes they’re pirates sailing wild seas and skies.”
Brief Synopsis: (From the jacket copy) “Birt and Etho are best friends. Together they play outside in big cardboard boxes. Sometimes they’re kings, soldiers, astronauts. Sometimes they’re pirates sailing wild seas and skies. But always, always they’re Big friends. Then one day a new boy arrives, and he wants to join them. Can two become three?”
Links To Resources: 31 Things To Do With A Cardboard Box (yes it’s a Buzzfeed link, but there are photos and how-to tutorials for all 31 and they’re so much fun!!!); 101 Things To Do With A Cardboard Box (never mind 31! :)); Make Your Own Friendship Bracelets (video tutorial)
Why I Like This Book: This is a lovely book, filled with the friendship and imaginative play of two boys who get along and understand each other… until a third boy shows up and threatens the balance not because he’s difficult or unpleasant – quite the opposite – but because he’s new and changes the dynamic. It’s a story about struggling to incorporate someone new without losing the old. It is not sentimental or sappy in any way, but I promise you will say “Aw!” on the last page 🙂 It’s an important story because integrating new friendships is a skill and a struggle that every child faces at some point. The pull toward someone new and fun that calls to one member of a friendship, the jealously that threatens the other… or sometimes just the fear that things will change, a true friend will be lost, the friendship will not be the same. Don’t miss this one!
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do 🙂
For the complete list of books with resources, please visit Perfect Picture Books.
PPBF folks, please add your titles and post-specific links (and any other info you feel like filling out 🙂 ) to the form below so we can all come see what fabulous picture books you’ve chosen to share this week!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone and stay well!!! 😊🌷🌸😊
Susanna Leonard Hill 
You must be logged in to post a comment.