I’m Going to Make a Friend

A child moves to a new house and is worried about making new friends. How long will it take? What games will they want to play? Will they have their own ideas? In the end, you just have to give it a go!

‘How to Make a Friend’ is a delightful, reassuring book which explores all the emotions it takes to form a friendship.

Text and illustration work beautifully together in this book as the pictures show the child using junk modelling to create a friend, encouraging readers to explore the idea of ‘making a friend’ and what this really means. At times, the robot style creation seems to come to life through the child’s imagination, but reverts to an inanimate form when the child interacts with others. As the child struggles with all the questions filling their head about what they might expect from a friend, the story offers a perfect springboard for discussion and role play to develop and explore these ideas.

The child- never identified as a boy or a girl- does have a constant companion- the cat which follows them around, their expression mirroring the feelings of the child. There are many details in the pictures for readers to discuss and enjoy as they explore the developing friendship. There are plenty of pages to pause on, to discuss what might be happening, what might be said - and what might happen next. The end papers are also worth lingering over- the child (and their cat!) play alone at the beginning, the two children(and the cat!) play together at the end.

A brilliant book for both home and school, ‘I’m Going to Make a Friend’ is just lovely!

I’m Going to Make a Friend

Darren Chetty, illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat

Little Tiger ISBN: 978-1801046602