You are not my friend, But i miss you

It's been so quiet in here i thought a book review was perfect to break the silence and the awkwardness. After all, I've been spending plenty of time trying to get my hands on the brand new books in the library and browsing bookdepository.com, imagining what it would be like to own many many new books (crazy person alert). Don't you love the smell of new books?

Title: You Are Not My Friend, But I Miss You 
Author and Illustrator: Daniel Kirk
Suitable age group: 2 - 4 years

We snagged this book from the library and loved it so much we ended up buying a copy for ourselves. The book revolves around a monkey who was upset with his friend, Dog, because the latter snatched his ball from him. The initial part tells us how Monkey was upset because Dog didn't share the ball with him and how he felt that Dog wasn't a good friend.

Monkey went on to prove his point that he didn't need a friend - he could play ball all by himself or with inanimate objects that wouldn't snatch his ball away. However, he would soon find that it really wasn't as fun playing by himself. That was when he realised that perhaps he wasn't a good friend too. The story ends with Monkey being friends again with Dog and promising to share better.

 

We love this book because my 3-year-old is at a stage where sharing and friendships are at a precocious stage - as how toddler friendships can be. She complains about being upset with her friends for various reasons while i know that she isn't completely innocent herself. Toddlers at this age are naturally inward looking, hence I like how this book teaches them to look beyond themselves but to treat others as how they would like to be treated. 

It helps too that the little boy loves anything about balls.

I totally judge a book by it's cover, so illustration wise, i would give the book a 8 out of 10 rating. The brightly coloured pictures draw young ones to the book while the clean pages makes it easy for them to focus on the main idea each page was bringing across. The only reason why i wouldn't give a higher rating for the book is because I'm biased - I love love water colour illustrations and these are not. Haha! 

If you are interested to find out more about the book, you can click here for a short clip on it. Enjoy!