Customer Reviews

Do You Want to Be My Friend?

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

or was anyone else confused by this book? Now don't get me wrong I don't expect War and Peace in a children's book, but a little more dialogue would have been nice. As it is, there are 2 possible conclusions I can draw from this book:

1. The mouse is asking each animal to be his friend and they are all saying 'No', which makes them all very mean and not worth talking about or,
2. The mouse is only asking the other mouse at the end of the book, ignoring all the other animals completely.

Either way, here is the message I walk away with: Mice should only be friends with other mice (people should only be friends with their own kind). Is this what we want to teach our children?

Agree w/ a prior reviewer - this book was VERY disappointing. I was horrified to hear it read, for the first time, by a 'teacher' (who obligingly filled in the dialogue for the non-mouse animals, to say to the mouse: "No I don't want to be your friend. . . your too little (or whatever)."
I think it can be read w/ a more positive spin, e.g., "I'd love to be your friend, but I can't play right now. . . " But the illustrations really convey a negative message to kids, and on its face is about being friends w/ your own kind, since it's only the mouse at the end who says "Yes." Not what I want to teach to my children. This book apparently was written in the 70's. It's way out of date, and I wouldn't buy it. Other Carle books have the same type of animal illustrations, so it's nothing special in that regard either.

As always, Eric Carle's books are well illustrated. This book presents illustrations that draw in any young reader to the adventure. The text is simple and understandable to the young mind. The story line serves as a useful tool to discuss issues of "same and different" with your child. However, it is not of the same caliber as Carle's other books such as the Hungry Caterpillar and Brown Bear, Brown Bear...

I recommend this book as part of any child's library, but if your finances are limited, purchase the other two books mentioned.

As a early childhood speech pathologist and special education teacher, I love this Eric Carle book. It allows the children to "tell the story" and provides a great foundation to discuss friendships. We read it every year in my classroom.

I loved this book. Because it has hardly any dialogue, it challenges the imagination of the "reader." It can be read over and over with never having the same story. Having read it to my two toddlers, I have always told the story in a positive light where the mouse plays with all of the animals along his way home. At the end of my version of the story, the mouse finds his brother or sister where they run off to their special fort. Each time I've read it, the story and dialogue have been slightly and sometimes widely different from the other times. I think that the book opens up so many possibilities and stretches the imagination. For young toddlers flipping through the book on their own, it also encourages that the pages be turned in order as the mouse follows the tail of his next friend and leaves the child to figure out to which animal each tail belongs. The pictures are colorful and simple and as beautiful as any of pictures of other Eric Carle books. Highly recommended for those who like open-ended stories!

Being a huge fan of Eric Carle and a kindergarten teacher, I was fairly disappointed with this book....it needs words! The only words found in the book are in two speech bubbles. At one time, these pictures were published in a Big Book that included text entitled "Will You Be My Friend?". Early readers need simple text they can follow - not just pictures.

In a recent Newsweek article, Eric Carle was asked which of his books were his favorite. He named this book, stating that it was an autobiographical story of his search for friendship as an immigrant 5-year-old. He finally found a close friend just before he moved back to Germany, which was soon war-torn. That friendship has been a defining factor even in his adult life.

While it is true that most kids need to learn to accept children who are different than them, there are plenty of kids who feel "different" and need the hope that if they look long enough, they will find someone they can connect with.

For the children who easily find friends, this book can help them understand how it feels to be one of the "different" kids who need a friend. We can ask, "Would it have made the mouse feel better if the other animals would be his friend?"

This book can introduce great discussions. There are plenty of books that show children an ideal world. This one shows reality.

The book seems to present a narrative similar to P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother?, which presents the very normal process whereby a lost young bird searches out the identity of its as-yet-unseen mother by unsuccessfully speaking to, among other other things, a boat, a plane, and a cow. The difference, as I see it, between the two, is that every attempted friendship sought out by the mouse in Carle's story is with another creature, until he finds the companionship most suited to him, that being with his own species. What a young child might take from this is probably very basic: mice probably find more in common with other mice. However, if applied to human relationships, it may be that the "message," if there is one at this level to deal with, probably favors the notion that of all the possible friends out there for someone, one is more suited to a person than all the rest. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the book condones some kind of rejection, because, after all, in real life it does take some effort for any child to find a special friend. Further, I wouldn't say that the book reinforces the idea that only people like us can be our friends because, once again, it is a good thing to encourage a child to imagine a uniquely suitable friend just for him or her. If they don't seek out the child who is most different from everyone else, it does not mean that child is insensitive, just that finding a friend might be more spontaneous and innocent than we parents and teachers may like to admit-even when the child finds someone who happens to look like him or her.

We decided to purchase this book for our toddler after she enjoyed the copy we had checked out of our local library. She had loved turning the pages and looking at the large pictures of each animal. Sadly, this copy was smaller than a postcard. When we read the copy from the library, I liked the idea of a book that tells a story with very little text, encouraging the reader to create his or her own. The way each animal's tail appears on the page teaches little readers to turn the pages in a book to reveal the narrative. I was disappointed that this edition has dialogue in which each animal rejects the mouse. I would have prefered the larger, textless edition. When ordering, pay attention to the dimensions!

yes this is a book about friendship and i realize for child at times simple is better but this book i thought really lacked especially compared to how great a book the hungry caterpillar is(i personally think just about this authors best book)it has at the very start of the book the question ask by a mouse "do you want to be my friend?"and then at the end a yes from another mouse no other writing between yes you can teach your child a little about the other animals the mouse is apparently asking though not in print.I personally thought this could have been laid out a little different