Customer Reviews

Best Friends for Frances

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My family is fairly unanimous that this is our favorite Frances book (with "A Birthday For Frances" the likely runner up.) Frances both stands up to being excluded and learns not to do the same thing herself; her anger at Albert is realistic and her "revenge" funny but not cruel; and everyone resolves their conflicts in a friendly way. The wording of the exchanges between Frances and Albert is exquisitely well done, I think: Hoban expresses such nuances in language that gets through to even small children. And last but not least, Frances's little songs are always hilarious and this book has some of the best ones of all, which my 2-year-old daughter has learned by heart.

Another great book from the Frances series by Russell Hoban. In this episode, Frances's friend Albert is not very interested in playing with her, especially because she is a girl, so Frances turns to her sister Gloria for a playmate. When Frances and Gloria plan a "best friends" outing complete with an enormous picnic lunch, Albert reconsiders the wisdom of not being friends with girls. I like this one both for the positive development of the sometimes-difficult relationship between Frances and her little sister Gloria, but also for the portrayal of girls who like to play baseball and catch frogs.

You can't go wrong with a Russell Hoban Frances book for young children. The text deals with everyday problems small kids face.

This is a great story about being kind to your sister. We see a good lesson that your sister can be your best friend too. I loved Frances books as a kid and I am so happy that my children love them as well.

As a child, the "Frances" books were my absolute favorites. My sister would read them to me when I was too little to read for myself. The humerous stories of home life and the gentle illustrations still evoke feelings of great comfort. Now I am buying the series for the children of friends. Many thanks to the Hobans for all of the fond memories they have given me!

The Frances books by Russell and Lillian Hoban are excellent early readers: entertaining, never condescending to children. In this one, Frances won't play with her younger sister Gloria because Gloria is too small to catch and bat a ball. But when Frances tries to play with her friend Albert, he says it's a no-girls game and won't let her play. This makes Frances appreciate the friendship of her sister more, and the two of them go on a no-boys picnic. Albert, however, hears about all the food they have in the picnic basket and wants to come. And eat. Frances tells him that it's a no-boys picnic. When Albert agrees that the baseball games will not be no-girls games, Frances agrees that the picnic will not be no-boys. After Frances and Albert patch things up, Gloria is afraid she will again be left out because she is the youngest, but Frances assures her that won't happen. A happy ending for all.

The Frances series of books is wonderful for children. I read these for my own children and am now getting them for my grandchildren. The books are wonderful for helping children explore their feelings and interaction with others. The stories are cute and are written as if they were written by a child going through a life experience. The series of Frances books are a not to be missed part of growing up. I like introducing these to children between the ages of 5-10 years of age.

This is not the most sympathetic story, with people excluding other people and only including them to get back at their OTHER friends, but it is pretty realistic to little-kid politics. Well, if you ignore the badgers, anyway.

First Frances won't play with her "baby" sister, then Albert won't play with girls, then Frances and her sister won't play with boys... oy! Luckily, everybody ends up realistically happy at the end.

I used to read and listen to this when I was younger. I've been on the hunt for the audio stories for years, and finally found then here, at Amazon. Frances ROCKS!!

Frances doesn't think she can be friends with her littlesister, but learns her lesson when the two actually become bestfriends.

Sweet story about not excluding one's little brother andsister, the Frances books are just great.