How to Cheer Up a Friend
Perhaps you know a friend who could use a hug?
Among my friends, there are many dear souls experiencing dread, anxiety, uncertainty, and disillusionment.
It’s hard to know what to do.
May I suggest a hug in the form of a book?
Author Stephanie Calmenson and illustrator Shannon McNeill have fashioned the needed hug on the pages of How to Cheer Up a Friend.
With a gentle, warm palette and gentle, respectful, rhyming text, the book opens, “What do you do when your friend feels blue?”
The book knows that sometimes there’s nothing we can do, even though we try.
I especially like the line, “If he says no, let it go.”
And yet … the book reassures us that there is something we can do.
I may have a friend, ”or two or ten,” who will appreciate having ready access to the hug within these pages, a reminder of how much I care about each of them.
If the children in your life are picking up on the tensions adults are experiencing, if they’re wondering what they can do, this is the right book to read aloud, to engender a discussion, to remind them of the vital importance of cheering up a friend.
Sending you each a hug.
How to Cheer Up a Friend
written by Stephanie Calmenson
illustrated by Shannon McNeill
Beach Lane Books / Simon & Schuster
published October 15, 2024
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Putting this on my storytime list!
Thank you for this thoughtful, beautifully written review. 💕