Do You Want To Be My Friend? Board Book Read Free Books and Download eBooks
"Do you want to be my friend?" asks a little mouse of a horse, a peacock, an alligator, and others in this charming story, now available as a sturdy board book.Do You Want to Be My Friend was an ALA Notable Book and an Honor Book at the Book World Spring Book Festival when first published in 1971.
Age Range: 2 - 4 years
Board book: 15 pages
Publisher: HarperFestival (September 1, 1995)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0694007099
ISBN-13: 978-0694007097
Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.2 x 5 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #17,031 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #82 in Books > Children's Books > Animals > Mice, Hamsters, Guinea Pigs & Squirrels #576 in Books > Children's Books > Growing Up & Facts of Life > Friendship, Social Skills & School Life > Friendship #1467 in Books > Children's Books > Literature & Fiction
As always, Eric Carle's books are well illustrated. This book presents illustrations that draw in any young reader to the adventure. The text is simple and understandable to the young mind. The story line serves as a useful tool to discuss issues of "same and different" with your child. However, it is not of the same caliber as Carle's other books such as the Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear...I recommend this book as part of any child's library, but if your finances are limited, purchase the other two books mentioned.
or was anyone else confused by this book? Now don't get me wrong I don't expect War and Peace in a children's book, but a little more dialogue would have been nice. As it is, there are 2 possible conclusions I can draw from this book:1. The mouse is asking each animal to be his friend and they are all saying 'No', which makes them all very mean and not worth talking about or,2. The mouse is only asking the other mouse at the end of the book, ignoring all the other animals completely.Either way, here is the message I walk away with: Mice should only be friends with other mice (people should only be friends with their own kind). Is this what we want to teach our children?
In a recent Newsweek article, Eric Carle was asked which of his books were his favorite. He named this book, stating that it was an autobiographical story of his search for friendship as an immigrant 5-year-old. He finally found a close friend just before he moved back to Germany, which was soon war-torn. That friendship has been a defining factor even in his adult life.While it is true that most kids need to learn to accept children who are different than them, there are plenty of kids who feel "different" and need the hope that if they look long enough, they will find someone they can connect with.For the children who easily find friends, this book can help them understand how it feels to be one of the "different" kids who need a friend. We can ask, "Would it have made the mouse feel better if the other animals would be his friend?"This book can introduce great discussions. There are plenty of books that show children an ideal world. This one shows reality.
I loved this book. Because it has hardly any dialogue, it challenges the imagination of the "reader." It can be read over and over with never having the same story. Having read it to my two toddlers, I have always told the story in a positive light where the mouse plays with all of the animals along his way home. At the end of my version of the story, the mouse finds his brother or sister where they run off to their special fort. Each time I've read it, the story and dialogue have been slightly and sometimes widely different from the other times. I think that the book opens up so many possibilities and stretches the imagination. For young toddlers flipping through the book on their own, it also encourages that the pages be turned in order as the mouse follows the tail of his next friend and leaves the child to figure out to which animal each tail belongs. The pictures are colorful and simple and as beautiful as any of pictures of other Eric Carle books. Highly recommended for those who like open-ended stories!
As a early childhood speech pathologist and special education teacher, I love this Eric Carle book. It allows the children to "tell the story" and provides a great foundation to discuss friendships. We read it every year in my classroom.
Agree w/ a prior reviewer - this book was VERY disappointing. I was horrified to hear it read, for the first time, by a 'teacher' (who obligingly filled in the dialogue for the non-mouse animals, to say to the mouse: "No I don't want to be your friend. . . your too little (or whatever)."I think it can be read w/ a more positive spin, e.g., "I'd love to be your friend, but I can't play right now. . . " But the illustrations really convey a negative message to kids, and on its face is about being friends w/ your own kind, since it's only the mouse at the end who says "Yes." Not what I want to teach to my children. This book apparently was written in the 70's. It's way out of date, and I wouldn't buy it. Other Carle books have the same type of animal illustrations, so it's nothing special in that regard either.
Being a huge fan of Eric Carle and a kindergarten teacher, I was fairly disappointed with this book....it needs words! The only words found in the book are in two speech bubbles. At one time, these pictures were published in a Big Book that included text entitled "Will You Be My Friend?". Early readers need simple text they can follow - not just pictures.
Not Eric Carle's best work, BUT it still has the whimsy and simplicity I appreciate in all his books.I got this book to go with the blue elephant sensory toy also available on because that listing said the elephant was based on this book. I assumed that the elephant was a character in the book, but my boys and I were all disappointed to find that he doesn't feature in the story at all. The elephant is no less an entertaining toy for my baby, but it was a bit of a let-down for my preschool-age boys who had been playing with it and were excited to see what it would do in the book.Minimal dialogue can be interesting and well-executed in some kid's books (Have You Seen My Cat? is a similar story with very minimal, repetitive dialogue that we LOVE). Part of the joy of Eric Carle's books is that the dialogue is simple enough to invite the readers to ask questions about what might happen next, why a character might say or do something, or even make a simple lesson of each page (what does the brown bear/red bird/yellow duck, etc say?) That was not the case with this story. I suppose it's an invitation to improvise with your child as you read, but a little prompting is helpful.I did not, however, walk away with the impression that it teaches xenophobia. I mean, you *could* get that impression, but I think it's kind of a stretch. I think we can look at animals as children's book characters without anthropomorphizing them. Should humans interact with and befriend other humans regardless of culture and other demographics? Sure. But outside of some of the amazing symbiotic relationships found in the animal kingdom, species don't interact a whole lot with other species outside captivity. I don't think your child is going to become a Klansman simply from reading a story in which a mouse has trouble making friends until he meets another mouse.
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