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Friendship, as a theme, runs through an enormous segment of children’s books, from board books, to picture books, to YA novels. What’s more important to a child than their friends? Children’s books deal with questions like: Are we friends? Can we stay friends? Do they still like me? Is my old friend as good a my new one? What’s it like to have a friend group? Indeed, friendship and family are the most important issues for children. (We explore family in the section “Family issues,” later in this chapter.)

You need to deal with friendship issues in an age-appropriate way. Board books and picture books often use animals to stand in for people; young children generally love anthropomorphized animals, and tough issues or messages seem to go down easier if animals, rather than humans, convey them (see Figure 3-10).

a) Cover only from Cow Boy Is NOT a Cowboy by Gregory Barrington, Gregory Arthur Barrington Illustrated by Gregory Barrington. Copyright © 2020 by Gregory Barrington. Used by permission of HarperCollins Publishers. b) From Hugsby, published by Penguin Random House. Reprinted by permission of the publisher and © 2020 Dow Phumiruk.

FIGURE 3-10: Friendship titles for young children.

Some standout picture book titles about friendship include the classic by Arnold Lobel, Frog and Toad Are Friends (HarperCollins); another timeless classic by Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree (Harper & Row); and the bestselling The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister (North-South Books), which also has a board book edition.

In middle-grade fiction, friendship issues get a bit more complicated. These books weave other issues of growing up and negotiating the murky waters of middle school social interaction into the theme of friendship. Some well-done books on middle-school friendship include Amina’s Voice, by Hena Khan (Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), which is a touching story about second thoughts and the sting of changing friendships; and the classic Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh (Yearling), a timeless tale about navigating friendships and social situations.

When it comes to YA books, friendships are often complicated by other issues that the author explores at the same time, such as issues of race, gender, culture, social and political themes, mental illness, abuse, relationships, family, and other burning issues of the day (or days gone by, if it’s a historical novel). For example, Ventura and Zelzah (Santa Monica Press), shown in Figure 3-11, tells the story of teenage friendships set in 1970s suburban Los Angeles.

From Ventura and Zelzah, by J.G. Bryan. Reprinted by permission of Santa Monica Press © 2022.

FIGURE 3-11: Ventura and Zelzah, a YA friendship title.

One YA book about friendship that has become a classic is Ann Brashares’ The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ember), which was made into a movie. (You could also consider this title a crossover back into middle-grade.) Other great YA books that deal with friendship include Not My Problem, by Ciara Smyth (HarperTeen); Early Departures, by Justin A. Reynolds (Katherine Tegen Books); and Darius the Great Is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram (Penguin Books).