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Unlikely Friendships for Kids

July 11, 2012 by Jennifer

It’s fun to respond to an email pitch from a publisher to request a book that they are offering. It’s sometimes even more fun to open up random shipments  that come to me. That’s how I stumbled across Workman Publishing’s Unlikely Friendships for Kids series.

I loved them when I first laid eyes on them. They are nice hardcover books, they are a cute gift-book size (smaller than 5 x 7), perfect for displaying on a bedside or end table or for little hands to carry around, and they have pictures of adorable animals. Cute, adorable, even precious — these are the words that I must use to describe them.

I read through the first two books in the series The Monkey & the Dove: And Four Other Stories of Animal Friendships and The Dog & The Piglet: And Four Other Stories of Animal Friendships and then left them out on the coffee table hoping that my 8-year-old son would pick them up and be charmed by the cuteness. He did read one or two of the stories at my request, but he wasn’t hooked. I was a little disappointed and wondered if these books would be as appealing to the intended age as they were to me.

But then last week my house was filled with little girls when my sister-in-law brought my nieces to visit. We had a stack of hand-me-down books and girly books that didn’t appeal to Kyle to give to my 7-year-old niece, and I put other books in the hands of my 3 1/2 year old niece when she was looking for some quiet downtime. The book that she loved most, carried around with her, and asked if she could keep was the “animal book.”

A young independent reader could read them on his or her own, but younger animal-lovers will likely “read” them to themselves as my niece did, or ask for them at bedtime (which she also did).

Each book has the same introduction where the author, science writer Jennifer S. Holland, tells about how she began writing about unusual animal friendships (when she was SCUBA diving and noticed 2 different species of fish swimming together., and then five different stories about animals who pair up in an unlikely way). She decided to try to discover other stories. And she did.

They are all stories of hope, because one of the animals is generally in dire straits and is helped or cheered or protected by his new animal friends. Without preaching, I’m sure that kids will get the message that they matter and their kindness could help someone else.

One of my favorite stories was “The Hippopotamus and the Goat,” because it is absurd (but still cute — always cute). Someone — someone who has obviously never been to a zoo — decided to keep a hippo in the house!! That was of course fine while the hippo was the size of a dog, but of course he grew and had to be moved, which is where he became friends with the goat. There’s more to the story, but I’ll let you find out for yourself.

I am happy that one of you will win all 3 books in the Unlikely Friendships for Kids series: the two listed above plus The Leopard & the Cow: And Four Other Stories of Animal Friendships, so you can enjoy the strange but true tales yourself. Just leave a comment if you’d like to win, and Workman Publishing will send out all 3 books. We will announce the winner here in our regular book giveaway column on 7/25.

  • The winner of Hope Springs is #13 Linda Kish.
  • The winner of Ocean Beach is #34 Susan Smith.

Don’t miss a thing: Check out our current giveaways. Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter or on Facebook.

Jennifer Donovan enjoys sharing books with little ones and was happy that some came to stay. She blogs at Snapshot.

Filed Under: Children's Books, Easy Readers, Jennifer, Picture Books

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Comments

  1. Rachel says

    July 11, 2012 at 8:49 am

    These look amazingly cute! I would love to have copies around for my nephew, but I think they would also just be really fun for me to read. 🙂

  2. ellie says

    July 11, 2012 at 8:54 am

    Thanks fo this lovely giveaway. Ideal for my grandchildren.

    • Jennifer says

      July 24, 2012 at 9:12 pm

      You won! Please send your shipping info to this email address, and we’ll have it shipped out to you.

      Jennifer

  3. Maddy says

    July 11, 2012 at 11:29 am

    You never can tell. I like the piglet one but probably because the picture is just too irresistible.

    As for what’s a hit and what isn’t – still a complete mystery. Nothing to do with age or reading ability it seems.

  4. matkeltri says

    July 11, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    These look adorable, and I’m sure the kids would love them!

  5. Linda Kish says

    July 11, 2012 at 11:51 pm

    I would like to read them myself and then I would share them with my DIL’s nieces.

    lkish77123 at gmail dot com

  6. Jessica T says

    July 12, 2012 at 12:07 am

    Love to win this for my kids!

  7. Van says

    July 12, 2012 at 9:56 am

    All three of these books would be great for the kids.

  8. Jenn says

    July 12, 2012 at 10:11 am

    Both of my kids would enjoy these books – they love animal stories!

  9. Carolyn says

    July 12, 2012 at 10:49 am

    My kids would love this series!

  10. riTa says

    July 12, 2012 at 5:22 pm

    Love, love, love these for my little grands!

  11. Carol says

    July 13, 2012 at 5:07 pm

    These look adorable!

  12. nannypanpan says

    July 13, 2012 at 11:06 pm

    i’m not sure if my mom or my son would like them more
    [email protected]

  13. June says

    July 14, 2012 at 12:27 pm

    Nice books for the family.

  14. samantha says

    July 14, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    my kids would love these

  15. Staci A says

    July 15, 2012 at 8:13 pm

    I ‘d love to share these with my son. He loves animal stories!

  16. Don says

    July 16, 2012 at 4:12 pm

    The little ones in our home would really like these.

  17. Lori D. says

    July 17, 2012 at 9:40 am

    What sweet books for the kids to read.

  18. Barb: 1SentenceDiary says

    July 24, 2012 at 1:34 pm

    My niece is a great animal lover. Such a cute idea for a book series.

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