Customer Reviews

Why Won't Anyone Play with Me?

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4 star:		(1)
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Why Won't Anyone Play with Me?
Written by Joy V. Smith
Illustrated by Andrea Gradidge
E-book
Ages 3-6

How does Kandy Kitty make a friend when no one wants to play with her? It's not easy being a playful little kitten but Kandy doesn't realize she plays too rough for the other animals.

Finally one of the animals speaks up and tells Kandy why they won't play with her. Then Kandy has an idea! She asks the other animals what they want to play. Now Kandy has many friends.

This book is a good concept for all young children to learn. Easy to read with a loveable main character, Why Won't Anyone Play with Me? will capture the imagination of the very young. Bright, bold illustrations bring the story to life and make this an appealing e-book.

The End

This review of an earlier editon ran in the summer of 2003.

Why Won't Anyone Play With Me? is a delightful, flat-spined children's picturebook with a relevant moral for young readers. Kallie, a curious and exuberant kitten, wants to play. But the creatures Kevin Kroaker, Tazi Treefrog, and Topper Turtle don't want to play with her! Why not? "A muffled voice, Topper Turtle's, said, 'You won't let us. We can't play the rough games you play; we're too little.'" Kallie learns to play gentle games such as hopscotch, leapfrog, and tag with her new friends. A handful of colorful cutouts of the main characters round out this simple story for teaching older children about getting along with younger children.

Reviewed by Noah Phenis (age 8) for Reader Views (11/07)


"Why Won't Anyone Play With Me?" is a short book written by Joy V. Smith for young kids to enjoy. The images in this story were done by Andrea Gradidge in a cute and fuzzy manner. The illustrations go right along with the story and help a child to see what is happening.

This story was written to help teach children a lesson in life. Joy V. Smith did a pretty good job teaching us that sometimes you need to learn how to play other people's games, so they can get more enjoyment out of it and maybe they will learn to play your games too.

The story uses six animal characters to play out a day's event. Four of these loveable characters are included in the back of the book as cutouts to play along with during the story, providing hands-on learning and getting the listener involved in the lesson.

I would like to see the author write more stories like this in a series to help teach other life lessons to young children. I would recommend "Why Won't Anyone Play With Me?" to anyone with small children who are still learning their way in the social world.

I thought this book was cute because I like kittens, frogs, turtles and salamanders which are used instead of people to tell the story. As a young child myself, I can relate to the difficulty Kallie Kitten has with making new friends and learning how to do so.

Book received free of charge

Joy V. Smith has written a delightful new children's book, Why Won't Anyone Play with Me?. This book is a short and sweet story that teaches, like most good childrens' books, an underlying lesson.

Meet Kallie, a sad and lonely little kitten. None of the animals at the big red barn will play with her. Wanting desperately to have friends, the sad little kitten sets out to find other animals to play with and to befriend. In her search along the pond by the woods, Kallie encounters Kevin Kroaker, Topper Turtle, Tazi Treefrog, Salli Salamander and Lily Ponds. Kallie cannot understand why none of these animals want to play with her. All of them run, jump or splash away at her every attempt to play with them. By the end of this short story, a soggy and tearful Kallie learns that she must change the way she plays with smaller animals if she hopes to ever have friends. When she learns this lesson, Kallie is able to play and enjoy new games with her brand new friends.

This story, with its animal characters, is especially appealing to younger children. Parents would like this story as it deals with a young one who is having difficulty understanding the need to play gently with smaller creatures. Why Won't Anyone Play With Me? would be a great story for children with smaller siblings, especially for those who, like many, have a tendency to play too rough.

Unfortunately, the illustrations in this book leave much to be desired and take away from the overall quality of the book. Blurry pictures that seem to have been enlarged, cut and pasted fill each page. Cut-outs in the back of the book, great for children to act out the story, are fuzzy. Many parents or grandparents would probably forego a purchase of this book based on it's cover alone. However the sage advice of "don't judge a book by its cover" comes into play well here. Smith's simple story is one that 2- to 4- year old children will love to hear again and again.