Navigating the world of friendships can be tough. Some kids are shy, while others are outgoing. Some like to play dress up, while other’s don’t. Even though we are different, beautiful friendships can still blossom. Here are twelve friendship stories to share with your little one about being a kind friend and making new friends.
12 Friendship Stories
1. Love Monster and the Perfect Present by Rachel Bright–
Love Monster wants to get the perfect present for his bestie. He searches all of the stores, but your can’t buy much with lint and a button. Love Monster begins to worry that he won’t have a present! Oh no, what is he going to do? Love Monster gets a fantastic idea to make a present for his best friend. Using some creativity and glitter, Love Monster makes a lovely gift, showing that the best gifts are those that come from our hearts. Love Monster has 2 other friendship stories to enjoy: Love Monster and Love Monster and the Last Chocolate.
2. My Friend Maggie by Hannah E. Harrison–
In this story, Maggie and Paula’s friendship is put to the test! Paula and Maggie are great friends until a mean kid starts to plant seeds of doubt in Paula’s head that maybe Maggie isn’t such a great friend. Paula becomes a bad friend, but when the mean kid turns on Paula, Maggie comes to her defense. Maggie is the best friend! This books is a great conversation starter about what it means to be a good friend, treating your friends with kindness, and understanding that we all make mistakes.
3. Sam, the Most Scaredy-Cat Kid in the Whole World by Mo Willems —
Sam is afraid of everything except for his monster friend, Leonardo. Kerry is also afraid of everything except for her monster friend, Frankenthaler. Get ready for a bunch of laughs when these two kids meet! These two scaredy-cats are getting on the monsters’ nerves. Something has to be done; something drastic. So the monsters leave the kids alone. Sam and Kerry hesitantly get to know each other and a new friendship forms 🙂 Together they team up to scare the monsters and the book ends with four awesome friends. Preschoolers and parents will giggle over the illustrations and the over-the-top antics of the two scaredy-cats.
4. Leo, a Ghost Story by Mac Barnett with illustrations by Christian Robinson–
Friends come in different shapes, sizes, and forms, including ghosts. A ghost is looking for a friend, but he accidently scares people away with his attempts at making friends. When he stumbles across a little girl who can see him and who isn’t afraid, Leo is excited to finally have someone to play with. However, his friend thinks he is imaginary, not a ghost. Not wanting to scare her away with the truth, Leo doesn’t tell he is actually a ghost. When a robber breaks into the girl’s home during the night, Leo springs into action, leaving the little girl to wonder how an imaginary friend was able to help capture the bad guy. It is the moment of truth: will the girl be afraid of a ghost or will they stay friends? Read this one to find out 🙂
5. Nugget and Fang by Tammi Sauer–
This is great story about best friends who just happen to be a shark and a minnow. The minnow, Nugget, starts school with the other little minnows. Nugget learns that sharks are big, scary predators out to eat minnows and they most definitely cannot be friends. Fang is devastated by the news, and tries his hardest to keep their friendship in tact. It doesn’t look good for their friendship, until Fang saves the little minnows and teaches them that sharks and minnows can be friends. What is 10 minnows plus 1 shark = 11 awesome friends 🙂
6. Hedgehugs by Steve Wilson–
Are you ready to meet Horace and Hattie, two of the cutest hedgehogs ever!?! These two hedgehogs are best friends and love to do things together. In fact, they pretty much do everything together except hug. How are two spiky hedgehogs supposed to be able to hug each other? The two friends try all sorts of different ways (cue preschooler giggles), but nothing is working. Then, they stumble upon some laundry drying in the sun and get the best idea! Brace yourself for a super cute hug 🙂 Horace and Hattie have more adorable adventures, so be sure to check your library for the others in this series.
7. Bear’s New Friend by Karma Wilson–
Bear heads out to enjoy the day and hears a sound. Is it his friend mouse? Nope, not mouse. One by one, Bear and his friends end up in a guessing game trying to figure out who this new creature is. They keep asking “Who?” Turns out to be a shy owl. Will owl want to be friends too? Read this one and find out!
8. A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead —
I love, love, love this book! My son and I have read this several times together and I have shared it at library storytime because it is such a sweet story about the power of kindness and friendship. Amos McGee works as a zookeeper, where he befriends an owl, a turtle, an elephant, and a penguin. When Amos gets sick, his friends return the kindness he gave them, and the animals travel to Amos’ house to take care of him. The soft illustrations are perfect for this gentle story.
9. Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems–
Elephant and Piggie books are spectacular! These books are charmingly cute, always funny, and written at a low reading level for kiddos who are starting to read on their own. In this story, Gerald has ice cream and he agonizes over whether or not he should share his ice cream with his best friend, Piggie. Kids will giggle over Gerald’s decision making process, as unbeknownst to him, the ice cream is melting away! Finally Gerald makes a decision — yes, he will share with his best friend because that is what friends do! By this time there is no ice cream left. Not to worry, Piggie got her own ice cream and she wants to share with her best friend!
10. Something’s Wrong!: A Bear, a Hare, and Some Underwear by Jory John–
In this funny book, Jeff, a bear, goes walking through the forest in his underwear! Jeff totally forgot about his undies. The animals are puzzled and give him strange looks. Jeff feels like something is wrong, but can’t figure out what. He becomes self-conscious and seeks out his friend, Anders. The forest animals gather around Jeff and ask why he’s in his undies. Anders comes to his defense, as good friends do, and puts on a pair of underwear! That’s right, it ‘s cool to walk around in your undies. The other animals rush off to find some undies to wear. Jeff thanks Anders for being such a good friend. “Good friends are like good underwear. They’re reliable and supportive!” 🙂
11. Little Quack’s New Friend by Lauren Thompson–
The whole Little Quack series is adorable, but I am partial to this one because I love the new froggy friend. This Little Quack story embodies preschooler’s shyness about meeting new people, but children’s innate playfulness and curiosity wins over and everyone has fun playing together. Plus, this story is full of fun sound words to say! There are many cute stories in the Little Quack series. Hopefully your library has this one and others. It is available for purchase on Amazon.
12. Cyril and Pat by Emily Gravett —
This is a funny book about two friends, a squirrel named Cyril and a rat named Pat. They both live in the park and have lots of fun together. However, other animals tell they that they are too different to be friends. Can that be true? Cyril lists all of the ways that Pat is a great friend even though he is a rat. When a mean dog is after Cyril, Pat and his rat friends come to the rescue, proving that friends come in all different shapes, sizes, and species! The only issue I have with this book is that it uses the word “stupid” and that’s not something that I want to teach my son. But since he can’t read yet, I just skipped over that word when I was reading the story out loud to him. In my opinion, the message of friendship outweighs that one negative word.
Check your library for these and other great friendship stories. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
Make this Smiley Face Craft for your friend!
