42 Picture Books That Will Teach Your Child How to Be a Good Friend
My preschooler was eerily quiet while we all sat at the breakfast table. She ate her oatmeal, spoonful by spoonful, but she stared past everything and didn’t say a word as the rest of us chit-chatted.
But she’s a talkative 4-year-old who loves to ask why every chance she gets, so I tried to read her face a couple times. I knew she must be mulling something over.
And then during a break in the conversation, finally: “Mommy? Yesterday at the park, Alex told me I’m not his friend.”
Oh no, I thought. We’re starting friendship drama already?
When Parenting Lectures Don’t Work
I reached out to rub my daughter’s shoulder. “I’m sorry that happened. How did you feel when he said that?”
“I felt sad.” She ate another bite of oatmeal, the corners of her mouth turned down.
I waited, not sure what to say.
“He is my friend,” she said. “Friends shouldn’t say things like that to each other.”
I nodded. “You’re right. That’s not a nice thing to say to a friend.”
But then the image of my kid ghosting another kid at the park popped into my head, so I kept going. “But sometimes even friends say not-nice things to each other. What’s important is to talk about it after. You can tell him his words made you feel sad. Maybe he’ll say he’s sorry and make it right.”
She nodded, but I could tell my mini-lecture hadn’t quite made it through to her. She was stuck in the hurt.
But Here’s What Does Work
Lectures don’t work with kids.
Deep down, I know that. But in the moment, I wanted to fix my child’s hurt heart. So I resorted to busting out some parental wisdom she didn’t ask for – and wasn’t ready to hear.
But after four kids, I’ve finally learned what does get through to kids.
Because I can talk to my kid until I’m blue in the face about what it means to be a good friend, but it won’t get through to her the way a story about friendship will get through.
Research shows this isn’t just in my head – when reading fiction, your brain reacts the same way as if you were living the story in real life. In other words, reading fiction about something your child is struggling with is like setting up a virtual reality simulation where they can fully enter the experience and understand different perspectives.
So after that conversation with my daughter, I set off on a new parenting mission: Find all the picture books about friendship I can get my hands on.
But not the sickeningly sweet stories that go in one ear and out the other. The juicy ones my kids can sink their teeth into. The picture books about friendship that will lead my children down the path of understanding how to be a good friend, what to do in tricky situations with friends, and how to tell when someone’s a true friend.
Related: The Secret to Raising Your Kids to Be Kind {Printable}
The Best Picture Books to Teach Your Child How to Be a Good Friend
For months, I made it my my job to research children’s book titles that tackle friendship. Every week, I put 20 books on hold at the library, plus at every visit I browsed the shelves for even more picture books about friendship.
Together, my kids and I read hundreds of picture books on the topic of friendship.
The list below is the cream of the crop from those hundreds of books: the books I loved reading, and the books my kids asked me to read again and again. But more importantly, these are the best picture books about friendship that kicked off the most powerful conversations about what it means to be a good friend.
Related: 10 Picture Books About Love That Will Make Your Kids Feel Absolutely Loved
42 Best Picture Books About Friendship, Approved by Kids And Parents
Enjoy this list of the absolute best picture books about friendship! We read a lot of picture books in our house, so if you’re looking for more great recommendations for books that will become treasured favorites, check out The All-Time Best Picture Books Most Loved by Kids And Parents.
Note: indicates my family’s absolute top favorites on the list. These are the books my kids can’t get enough of!
For When It’s Hard to Make New Friends†
If your child is starting a new school year or you’ve moved to a new area, share one of these picture books about friendship with your child to help them understand and cope with the emotions they might feel.
1. The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend
2. Big Friends
3. Shy
For When a Friend Is Upset
Even some adults aren’t sure how to handle it when a friend is upset. Help your child learn how to be a good friend in that situation by reading them these children’s books about friendship. For more books like this, check out 50+ Children’s Books About Empathy to Help You Raise Kind Kids.
4. A Ball for Daisy
5. Boy + Bot
6. Hooray for Hat!
7. My Friend Is Sad
8. Oliver and Patch
9. One
10. Stick and Stone
11. Wilfred
For When a Friend Is Moving Away
A close friend moving away can be an intensely upsetting event in a child’s life. These picture books about friendship will help your child get through that difficult time.
12. Before I Leave
13. City Dog, Country Frog
14. Sophie’s Squash
For When You’re Not Getting Along With a Friend
Tiffs between friends are normal, but it’s not always clear to a child how they can move past the conflict and get back to having fun together. These picture books about friendship will teach your child important lessons they’ll be able to use in any relationship.
15. Enemy Pie
16. Good News, Bad News
17. Hector and Hummingbird
About the Importance of Being an Includer
If you want to raise your child to be kind, they need to understand what it looks like to be an includer. These children’s books about friendship will give your child powerful, tangible examples of how to be an includer.
18. Each Kindness
19. Leonardo, the Terrible Monster
20. Quackers
21. Ribbit!
22. Strictly No Elephants
The Best All-Around Picture Books About Friendship
These are the best picture books about friendship to show your child what it means to be a good friend and to give them examples of how to handle various friendship problems.
23. The Bear and the Piano
24. George and Martha
25. The Girl and the Bicycle
26. The Happy Lion
27. Hooray for Amanda & Her Alligator!
28. Horrible Bear
29. Horsefly and Honeybee
30. I Will Not Eat You
31. Library Lion
32. The Lion and the Bird
33. Lost and Found
34. The Old Woman Who Named Things
35. Orion and the Dark
36. Penguin and Pinecone
37. Sad, the Dog
38. Scrawny Cat
39. A Sick Day for Amos McGee
40. Sparky
41. Those Pesky Rabbits
42. Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge
Related: The Ultimate List of the Best Picture Books, Endorsed by Kids And Parents
Before you go, get my FREE cheat sheet: 75 Positive Phrases Every Child Needs to Hear
Want More?
For more books about being a good friend, check out these lists:
Your Turn
Which are your favorite picture books about friendship? Share in a comment below!
I like the sand and stone. It’s about forgetting the bad things and remembering the good ones.
What a wonderful post! I’ll make sure to check these books to find new addition to our collection.
Thank you! I’m so glad to find this and try them out to see if it’ll help my little boy.
I absolutely love City dog Country frog. It is such a good book to read, but I will admit to tearing up the first time I read it. Okay…I teared up a lot when I read it.
Let’s make a friend is a great book too! Written by Dr. Christy Cugini
Niko Draws a Feeling- About not being understood as well as discovering friendship. Very important for kids who SEE/FEEL life differently. This book is magic at showing that you are not alone.
My preschoolers love Ping and Pong Are Best Friends (Mostly) by Tim Hopgood
I’m looking for a book for an 8 year old girl struggling with emotions. She can’t understand why friends don’t want to do what she wants all the time and gets very frustrated. She struggles to see things from others points of view and spends a lot of time alone. She is like an 8 yr old moody teenager. She may already be in puberty and is starting to develop physically. She is also very intelligent and very sweet.
Marie, you may be interested in checking out a FANTASTIC series by American Girl that has nothing to do with dolls. They have many books in the series that covers Friends, What to do about Rumors and Secrets, A Smart Girl’s Guide for What to Say, Emotions, Worry, etc. They also have books about body changes that may apply – The Care and Keeping of You. These cover SO MANY great topIcs.Hope this helps!
These are incredible books. We discovered them last year and both my girls 9 and 11 love them. They are a referral as well – they actually go back to them when issues crop up. Highly recommend.
im a mother of 3 and love how powerful books are for encouraging great habits in your kids! Kindness Starts With You by Jacquelyn Stagg is one of our favorites! It will have your little ones spreading kindness and repeating the phrases after reading it once!! I highly recommend it!!
I just found this on Pinterest! I can’t thank you enough (and the other mom bloggers out there). You cut the research and work in half by sharing everything so freely. Thanks so much!
Great list! Which book would you recommend with a good story about a friend saying not so nice things or doing things you don’t like (like throw a snowball at you)? (A la the situation that prompted this great research!)
One of our favorites is Lily and Bear
Hi have you got a childrens book recommendation about when one of your friends is periodically mean to you or manipulation? Thanks
We love penguin and pinecone and a sick day for Amos McGee. Excited to check out the others! Thank you! I would also suggest Hello, My Name is Ruby. Both my kids (2 & 4) love it and it helped my older one, who often feels shy, practice how to approach new friends and that sometimes someone may not be interested in playing (it was kind though, that bird just said no thank you) and that’s ok too.