Customer Reviews

How to Lose All Your Friends (Picture Puffins)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I use this book as a read-aloud with my first grade students. The illustrations are great, and the book is right at their level. It is a fun way to show good and poor social behavior, and my students ask me to read it again and again. It helps them internalize what it takes to make friends.

I have a little girl who is nearly four and learning to read. She also has trouble, sometimes, with sharing, as do most little girls her age. This book provides her with great lessons about sharing, being a friend, and why other kids don't like it when you're not nice to them. It's a super lesson for a preschooler.

The author's approach amazed my daughter. She writes the book as a sarcastic "guide book," on how to lose all your friends (thus the title), but the sarcasm did not escape my little one. The clear illustrations helped a lot, so that the meaning is easy to grasp.

This book uses humor to communicate common things that kids do to hurt other children. It is a good book for children who frequently get into scraps with other kids. One of my nephews is the second boy in his family. As the second boy, he seems to have a lot to prove, which has led to a lot of arguments with his other little friends. This book helped him see his actions for himself in a way that did not threaten his self-esteem.

As a school counselor and then as a therapist, I use this book with all ages, 3-18 to teach the basics of friendship skills. It's simple, basic, practical and the most used friendship book I've owned.

One fun key, is to skip the last page on the first reading.
Then have the kids change the story by changing the words, (i.e. how to make friends.)
Then skip the 2nd to last page and go to the last page, which then changes the the end of the new story pictorially. Even though, they may know what you did (the older kids anyway,) they love the trick.
I tell them they are magic and they changed the story.

This is a wonderful book that gently explains to children in a humorous fashion - how to be a friend and how to have friends. I love it - as does my 5 year old daughter. We checked it out at the library and thought it was so wonderful, I ordered a copy.

This book is a great book to teach children about politeness and friendship. I use this book during the first week of school to build community within the classroom.

Reviewing Social Skills in a Fun, attention-retaining manner!

This book was perfect for my 8 year old Aspie. How many social skills books have he and I read together talking about social rules about how to make friends? We review them over and over, looking at pictures and reviewing all the steps of what to do. Every time I get one out to review with him, I get the same response -- "boring!".

"How to Lose All Your Friends" was perfect for him! He has a great sense of humour and thought the whole concept was extremely funny. Demonstrating what to do by talking about the negative, what not to do, with nice illustrations, is extremely funny and attention-getting. It also reads more like a story book than a text book. As soon as I got it, my Aspie picked it up and read it. He liked it so much, he even did his monthly book review on it. Most 7-8 year olds could read this on their own. Awesome for those who could use a little brushing up on their social skills.

If you're child has a high-functioning autism or Asperger's I highly recommend this book to help him understand what NOT to do with his peers. It's funny and very tongue-in-cheek.

My son has been being bully at school, he is a very innocent child, he's in the second grade. Since he wants to be like within the circle of children in his classroom, he will do things that can be annoying to others, meanwhile he's doing these things to be cool and be liked. I highly recommend this book, is very age appropiate, he reads the book at all times, and he can also distinguish who is being nice in school and who is not. He has also stopped doing being annoying while thinking he was being COOL.

As an elementary school guidance counselor, I find this book very helpful in teaching appropriate friendship behaviors. The kids find it funny too and they "get it" the way it is written.