A favorite with the kids. ( )

What makes a camel friends with a Vietnamese pig? Or a wild polar bear pals with a sled dog? In this young preschool book, This book contains true stories and pictures of unlikely animal friendships. Through a spirit perspective, these stories express tolerance of differences and help the reader look at the kindness of animals—and humans—with open hearts, very much like Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom paintings.

In this book, Catherine Thimmesh tells the stories of unlikely friendships made between animals. What I like about this book is that it uses real situations that have occurred between animals and the connections they have formed with one another. I think that it is a great book to use to teach students about animals but also about how friendship can be found in the most unlikely of places. For example, a tabby cat and an orangutan getting along is not something you see everyday, however they rely on each other and become very lose. This book can be used to teach children that it is okay to have differences from their friends. ( )

I absolutely loved this book for a couple of reasons. The illustrations throughout this book are adorable and tend to make the reader smile. Because these pictures show two animals that are usually never together, it pulls the reader in even closer and forces them to read more. For example, one picture is of a baby monkey hugging a pigeon. This is unusual for readers to see because it’s not every day we see a monkey doing this. I also like how next to each picture is the story of how the two animals met and became friends. I also enjoy the writing throughout this book because there are short poems about friendship at the top of each page that rhyme. To my knowledge, all of the information throughout this story is accurate because it is nonfiction. What’s even more interesting is that all of these pictures are real photographs of the two animals together, because there is an acknowledgement to the photographers at the back of the book. Overall, this was a really cute book with amazing stories as to how the two animals became friends. The big idea of this book is to inform the reader that any two animals can be friends and gives the story of how they met and became friends. ( )

"Friends: True Stories of Extraordinary Animal Friendships" is informational story/poem about how two different animals find a special bond through friendship. The story is written as a poem and at the bottom the each page is the true story behind the animals shown in the picture. This is a terrific way to introduce poetry to young readers. There is also a common/predictable theme through out the story. Each new poem begins "A friend..." and is completed with relatable adverbs(helps, connects, plays, snuggles, etc). The vivid realistic pictures is another aspect that make this book a excellent choice for a classroom library.