My Best Friend

I bought this for my 2 year old class and while the kids love it, I do think I love it even more. First of all the illustrations are wonderful. Second of all, I think it’s great that we don’t find out until late into the story that the girls have only just met. I saw a review that mentioned a concern for the lack of grammar. I, for one, love that the story is told from a child’s perspective, using a child’s verbiage. The words are spaced very intentionally and it’s clear how they’re meant to be read. Children’s literature is meant to be wild and free. It’s a lawless land where creativity wins above all. That’s honestly what I love so much about kids books. There are no rules. And this book is an amazing reminder of that.

This book is a sweet and simple celebration of the magic of first friendships.The playful and childlike voice make this story an appealing and fun read aloud.I checked this out from the library so many times that I finally caved and bought my own.

This is such a sweet story about friendship and what draws us to another person. Highly recommend and can't wait to read it to my Pre-K kids.

It’s a lovely story and not only that the details of the illustrations are very nice.

I was so excited to get this book for my 4 year old because she has a best friend that she completely loves and dotes on and is excited to see everyday at school. We read the book together immediately when we received it and explored all the pictures... and unfortunately it didn't become a favorite.This book had potential, but what happened? Here are my observations...I was anticipating that this would be a book that showcases a relationship between two little girls and that it would be oh-so-relatable for my daughter. However, the story isn't really about best friends at all. It's about a little girl who meets another little girl at the park. They start playing together and the little girl is wondering throughout the whole book if they are best friends because they like to do the same things, play the same way, and are having so much fun together. But at the end, as the girls leave the park, you realize they don't know each other or each other's names. This is very typical of every child's experience when they are out and meet and play with someone they never met before, but it was not quite as relatable for my daughter as I hoped. Confusing for kids as well. Would maybe have been better received if the title was straightforward like New Friend at the Park. Secondly, the book is ramblings and thoughts from inside the mind and from the perspective of the little girl only. Not really a developed plot with climax. Thirdly, while the book is beautifully illustrated, the use of color is drab. I get it stylistically as an adult...but the entire book is white, green, brown, and black. Every single page. Not as visually interesting or stimulating to explore and each picture / page just blends in with the next after a while.From my perspective as mom, what I didn't like about this book is that the author attempted to write in the manner of how a small child would speak... in a rambling sort of way with weird pauses or no pauses. And how this was achieved was by not using any punctuation or capitalization. Here's an excerpt, "it is a creepy hand that is chasing me through the garden and when i step on the flowers she helps me fix them sort of if you twirl them together they can lean and look like we never squashed them or maybe only a little she is my best friend i think i've never had a best friend so i'm not sure but i think she is a really good best friend because when we were drawing she drew me and i drew her and then we made hearts around it". I will say that the author does space out and strategically place the sentences throughout the pages, separating them so it's not one continuous word dump. However, I personally believe that young children learn grammar through exposure and just hearing and seeing, whether they can read yet or are school aged or not. So, I am not a fan of the style this book was written in. Children are learning to read here.In the end, we didn't read this one again after the first time and not because I wasn't willing to. My daughter was just not that into it.