Making Friends (Making Friends, 1)

Product Information

This is a laugh-out-loud funny romp, following Dany, a seventh grader who’s having difficulty socially – so when she finds a magic sketchbook that brings anything she draws to life, she makes herself a new best friend (as well as bringing her favorite manga character to life). A story that involves a floating head of a manga villain, bullies, cool girls, and a lesson in true friendship. In this charming and sensitive book, we meet Sukie and Joe: two children making friends for the first time. It starts off with Danielle's family fighting over the things that Elma left behind but we never got to see what happened at the end with that. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend).

Danielle needs a perfect friend, but sometimes making (or creating) one is a lot easier than keeping one! She moans and complains a lot about how unfortunate she is and how no one likes her, but never once do we even see her trying to reach out to other kids, and more than once, other kids reach out to her in clearly friendly ways. Lesson finally learned, Dany uses her magic to fix the gym, taking responsibility for the damage caused by her fight with Neptune in the previous book, and then destroys her back of mindwiping t-shirts.

A perfectly judged niche story that has general appeal due to a clean text and cute character; Specs for Rex is a visual treat that's really worth putting your glasses on for. Secondary characters offer a bit more inclusivity, portraying different races, ethnicities, and orientations. What was most troubling about this graphic novel is that it appears to want to tackle some tough topics, but then just brushes them off.

Overall, I didn't really enjoy this one outside of the art and I highly doubt that I'll be continuing the story. Amanda Mcardie's book is the perfect lesson to children about meeting new people, standing up for one another and celebrating their differences. With fun and lively illustrations, this funny book prompts children to discuss the idea of friendship with parents and peers. My eldest loves it too (3) and it was good as she is developing and learning about friendships herself. She goes to the local middle school and her two best friends aren't on the same class schedule as hers so currently she doesn't have anyone to talk to at school.

The thing is, even when you create a best friend, there's no guarantee they'll always be your best friend. I will say that Gudsnuk does attempt to address the bullying and low self esteem that Danny experiences, but so much of it is handled in a joking manner that the overall affect is lost. I've read quite a few positive reviews, to try to understand what it is people enjoy about the book, and it seems that a lot of people really love the humor, and some the magical conceit (girl draws things in magic notebook that then become real). If The Unwritten Rules of Friendship is my top pick for parents who want to help their young children, this book is the top pick for parents who want to help their teens and young adults. Best-selling author, Molly Potter has offered up practical advice for children in this humorous and informative book.

Unfortunately, her friends are in a different school cluster and she's forced to start this new school by herself without any friends. The first thing Dany brings to life is the disembodied head of one of her favorite anime characters (she didn’t know he was going to come to life when she only drew his head). I have to admit, reading through reviews of this book on Goodreads, that I am reading this as a book for myself and not for a typical middle school girl. I loved the cast of characters and a few of them came from diverse backgrounds (black, Guatemalan, Asian, etc).Laura studied literature twice at university, so she's read a lot of books (always helpful when writing them). While sketching her favorite evil prince from the beloved anime Solar Sisters, she discovers that anything she draws in the notebook becomes real. Here children can explore what it means to be part of a society and discover the cultural and spiritual diversity that life has to offer. In 1995 she moved to West Wales with her family where she has lived and illustrated for the past 12 years. This social-emotional book for kids:teaches children how to make friendsoffers children many examples of social activities and friendly behaviorcontains lovely illustrations and a light rhyming storylinesuitable for toddlers, preschool kids ages 3 to 5, as well as primary school students of 6-10 years oldcontains a number of funny animal characters that children will love from the first sightThere are many books about big emotions available.

Occasionally characters will make a comment about Neptune being vile, but Dany always insists he's misunderstood, and this really got under my skin. My other big problem with Prince Neptune is that he's toxic, but the book does not interrogate this as much as I wanted it to. When she gets involved with the Air Transport Auxiliary, she realises it may be more than she bargained for. Rather than best friends, the pair now believe they are twins — and that isn’t the only part of their lives that has been completely rewritten.

In Making Friends by Kristen Gudsnuk (272 pages), Dany is bummed to find herself split up from her usual friend group.