We’re kicking off 12 Weeks of Summer with book lists to celebrate all sorts of topics. Today’s theme is friendship. Read on for great books about friendship, making friends, and being a friend.
Sesame Street® Welcoming Words
- Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2
- Reading Level: Kindergarten
Sesame Street characters help readers connect to new friends who speak different languages. Simple words and phrases relating to everyday life plus a colorful approach help readers learn a new language to become smarter, kinder friends and communicate across cultures.
Caring with Bert and Ernie: A Book about Empathy
From the Series Sesame Street® Character Guides
- Interest Level: Preschool – Grade 2
- Reading Level: Kindergarten
Kids will learn all about empathy with best buddies Bert and Ernie! They will discover how to think about others, show that they care, and help those around them.
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3
- Reading Level: Grade 2
In her debut picture book, Beth Mills offers a pitch-perfect look at recess, friendship, and being a good sport.
First grader Ella McKeen is the undisputed kickball queen until a new girl named Riya shows up—and shows her up at recess. How does Ella handle losing? By throwing herself on the grass and screaming while the rest of the class watches her fall apart. Yikes!
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 3
- Reading Level: Grade 2
Niko loves to draw his world: the ring-a-ling of the ice cream truck, the warmth of sun on his face.
But no one appreciates his art. Until one day, Niko meets Iris . . .
This imaginative and tender story explores the creative process, abstract art, friendship, and the universal desire to feel understood.
A Junior Library Guild selection, Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College Best Children’s Book of the Year, Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books, Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choice, Midwest Connections Pick, NCTE Notable Children’s Book in the Language Arts, and New York Public Library Best Book for Kids
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
- Reading Level: Grade 2
Friends can come in many different colors, shapes, and sizes. Through bright photographs and simple text, young readers will discover the many ways to be a friend and how to celebrate all the different kinds of friendships they have.
Cloverleaf Books™ — Stories with Character
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
- Reading Level: Grade 1
What does it mean to be courageous? Or to have determination? These charming, fictional stories showcase concepts such as generosity, fairness, and more. The stories illustrate situations familiar to young readers and provide activity ideas for promoting character values.
- Interest Level: Kindergarten – Grade 2
- Reading Level: Grade 1
An introduction to respecting yourself, friends, parents, teachers, people you don’t know, and the earth, with specific examples of how to show respect at home and at school.
Show Your Character
- Interest Level: Grade 1 – Grade 3
- Reading Level: Grade 2
Using a question-and-answer format and real-world scenarios, Show Your Character takes a concrete approach to explaining such things as how to deal with bullying, how to show others you care, and how to react responsibly to a variety of different social situations. Readers will have fun learning about character values and will emerge with useful “takeaway points” they can apply to their own lives.
A Garfield® Guide to Online Etiquette: Be Kind Online
From the Series Garfield’s® Guide to Digital Citizenship
- Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
- Reading Level: Grade 3
Nermal is bored, so he decides to post a funny photo of his friend Otto. He thinks he is just joking, but as more people comment, Nermal begins to worry that he has accidentally become a cyberbully. Cyber safety expert Dr. Cybrina helps Garfield and friends choose their words carefully, think before they post, and understand what it means to be kind online.
A Garfield® Guide to Online “Friends”: Not the Same as Real Friends!
From the Series Garfield’s® Guide to Digital Citizenship
- Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
- Reading Level: Grade 3
Nermal is determined to beat Cheesequest 7: Attack of the Cheddar Zombies no matter what. But when an online friend offers to help Nermal win in exchange for his user info and password, Arlene and Garfield decide to call in Dr. Cybrina, online security expert. Join Garfield and friends as they learn about who to trust and what to share online.
Believe Your Eyes: Book 1
From the Series Cici: A Fairy’s Tale
- Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
- Reading Level: Grade 2
A lot is changing for Cici. Her parents are separating, her wacky abuela is moving in, and on her tenth birthday, she wakes up with fairy wings! Cici’s new magical powers let her see people as they truly are. But what she learns about her friends and family isn’t always easy to accept. She has only one day to decide whether to keep her wings. When Cici wishes life could just be normal again, will she choose to believe in the power of fairies?
High Five, Mallory!
From the Series Mallory
- Interest Level: Grade 2 – Grade 5
- Reading Level: Grade 3
Mallory is excited to start fifth grade. She just got a cell phone, and Mary Ann’s in her class. What could go wrong?
For one thing, she gets off on the wrong foot with her new teacher. For another, Mary Ann seems to be avoiding her and spending all her time with their classmate Zoe. And then there’s Mallory’s book report assignment. Instead of Mary Ann, her partner is the new kid, Devon. Is fifth grade going to be a disaster, a fun adventure, or a little of both?
Odd, Weird & Little
- Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
- Reading Level: Grade 3
Readers will find this charming, funny, easy-to-read middle-grade novel from the beloved Patrick Jennings an absolute hoot!
When the new kid joins his class, Woodrow agrees with his schoolmates—Toulouse is really weird. He’s short—kindergarten short—dresses in a suit like a grandpa, has huge eyes, and barely says a word. But Woodrow isn’t exactly Mr. Popularity. The frequent target of the class bully himself, he figures that maybe all Toulouse needs is a chance. And when the two are put together in gym to play volleyball, they make quite the team. Toulouse can serve, set, and spike like a pro. He really knows how to fly around the court. But when the attention and teasing switch back to Woodrow, he learns that the new kid is great at something else: being a friend.
Full of heart and laughs, Odd, Weird, and Little is another winner from the author of the Guinea Dog series.
Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship
- Interest Level: Grade 3 – Grade 6
- Reading Level: Grade 4
Two poets, one white and one black, explore race and childhood in this must-have collection tailored to provoke thought and conversation.
How can Irene and Charles work together on their fifth grade poetry project? They don’t know each other . . . and they’re not sure they want to.
Irene Latham, who is white, and Charles Waters, who is black, use this fictional setup to delve into different experiences of race in a relatable way, exploring such topics as hair, hobbies, and family dinners. Accompanied by artwork from acclaimed illustrators Sean Qualls and Selina Alko (of The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage), this remarkable collaboration invites readers of all ages to join the dialogue by putting their own words to their experiences.
Cassandra Steps Out: Book 1
From the Series Cassandra: Animal Psychic
- Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 8
- Reading Level: Grade 3
Cassandra has a gift. Animals can show her what they’re thinking. And she’s done keeping her talent a secret. In the first volume of the Cassandra: Animal Psychic series, Cassandra sets out to help pets and their people.
The trouble is, other parts of Cassandra’s life are changing too. Her mom has a boyfriend she really likes, but his daughter can’t stand Cassandra. And Cassandra’s best friend is about to leave town. Not even her trusty dog Miss Dolly can make things feel okay. When Cassandra gets on the trail of a lost cat, will she be able to help its owners? Or will her first case be a flop?
Name Tags and Other Sixth-Grade Disasters
- Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 7
- Reading Level: Grade 5
Fun, funny, and fully heartfelt. Everyone needs true-blue friends like Lizbeth’s. SuperChicken for life.
—Kristin L. Gray, author of The Amelia Six and Vilonia Beebe Takes Charge
One of those books that explores difficult topics—divorce, a new school, being dubbed a “weirdo”—with grace and good humor.
—Rebecca Petruck, author of Boy Bites Bug and Steering Toward Normal
This hilarious and heartfelt gem is moving straight to my “favorites” shelf.
—Lisa Lewis Tyre, author of Last in a Long Line of Rebels and Hope in the Holler
Twelve-year-old Lizbeth always has a plan, and those plans have usually worked—until now. No matter what she tries, she can’t get rid of her dad’s new girlfriend, Claire. And when she and her mom move, Lizbeth has to join a sixth-grade class already in progress, where her teacher makes her wear a name tag and she’s seated with three notorious “weirdos.”
When faced with mandatory participation in a school talent show, Lizbeth and the Weirdos decide to create self portraits. Reluctantly, Lizbeth finds herself becoming friends with people she thought she had nothing in common with—and coming to terms with the things she can’t control.
Noah Green Saves the World
- Interest Level: Grade 4 – Grade 7
- Reading Level: Grade 4
Noah is a would-be filmmaker who has trouble making friends and understanding people. In Noah Green Saves the World, by Laura Toffler-Corrie, Noah thinks that this summer, the best place for him is the David Lynch Film Camp, to work on his film “opus,” and not his parents’ choice, Camp Challah, to work on his bar mitzvah project. But before camp starts, Noah’s grandfather “Pops” takes him aside, along with Simon, a new arrival but not quite friend, and tells them both “It’s up to you to save the world!” Is Pops just confused, or is he onto something? When a pigeon flies into camp carrying mysterious messages, Noah and Simon wonder if maybe they do really have to save the world. With help from his new friends, Josh, Tyler, environmentalist and upcoming singer-songwriter Mia, and even his popular sister Lily, Noah finds that he can make films, make friends, do his bar mitzvah project, and maybe even save the world after all.
Fly Back, Agnes
- Interest Level: Grade 5 – Grade 8
- Reading Level: Grade 4
A heartfelt story that sensitively tackles the everyday inner turmoil of growing up and staying true to oneself.
Twelve-year-old Agnes hates everything about her life: her name, her parents’ divorce, her best friend’s abandonment, her changing body . . . . So while staying with her dad over the summer, she decides to become someone else. She tells people she meets that her name is Chloe, she’s fourteen, her parents are married, and she’s a dancer and actor—just the life she wants.
But Agnes’s fibs quickly stack up and start to complicate her new friendships, especially with Fin, whose mysterious relative runs a local raptor rehab center that fascinates Agnes. The birds, given time and care, heal and fly back home. Agnes, too, wants to get back to wherever she truly belongs. But first she must come to see the good in her real life, however flawed and messy it is, and be honest with her friends, her family, and herself.
Can You Say Catastrophe?
From the Series The Mostly Miserable Life of April Sinclair
- Interest Level: Grade 5 – Grade 9
- Reading Level: Grade 5
April Sinclair just wants what any normal thirteen-year-old would want: to disown her parents and obnoxious little sisters; to escape to summer camp ASAP with her two best friends, Billy and Brynn; and to make a good impression on Matt Parker, the hot new boy next door.
Unfortunately, Matt witnesses April’s utter humiliation at her birthday party. Then Billy kisses her. Just as April is trying to figure things out, her parents cancel her camp plans in lieu of a family RV trip. A summer of babysitting her sisters and “re-bonding” with her family isn’t how she imagined life as a teenager. And it certainly won’t help her straighten out her feelings about Billy or Matt. Is there any silver lining to a road trip in The Clunker with her family of misfits?
Kick!
- Interest Level: Grade 6 – 12
- Reading Level: Grade 4
For high school soccer players, the drama of the next big game is rivaled only by the everyday drama of their lives. In these fast-paced stories, players grapple with challenges on and off the field. Dynamic scenes keep readers engaged with a balance of page-turning soccer action and real-world stakes.
Reality Show
- Interest Level: Grade 6 – 12
- Reading Level: Grade 4
Six teens are given the chance to compete in reality shows—from escape rooms to athletic competitions. They’re all in pursuit of fame, prize money, or more personal goals. But will the stakes turn out to be too high?
Four Secrets
- Interest Level: Grade 7 – Grade 12
- Reading Level: Grade 7
“To you the idea to kidnap Chase Dobson might seem like a mistake. But to us… we were just trying to stop him from being so…evil. We just…we had to stop him. No one helps kids like us. Not at my school. We aren’t the important kids. We knew it wouldn’t stop unless we stopped it ourselves.”
Katie, Nate, and Renata had no farther to fall down the social ladder. But when they hit bottom, they found each other. Together, they wanted to change things. To stop the torment. So they made a plan. One person seemed to have everyone’s secrets—and all the power. If they could stop him…
But secrets are complicated, powerful things. They are hard to keep. And even a noble plan to stop a bully can go horribly wrong.
Camp So-and-So
- Interest Level: Grade 8 – Grade 12
- Reading Level: Grade 7
The letters went out in mid-February.
Each letter invited its recipient to spend a week at Camp So-and-So, a lakeside retreat for girls nestled high in the Starveling Mountains. Each letter came with a glossy brochure with photographs of young women climbing rocks, performing Shakespearean theatre under the stars, and spiking volleyballs. Each letter was signed in ink by the famed and reclusive businessman and philanthropist, Inge F. Yancey IV.
By the end of the month, twenty-five applications had been completed, signed, and mailed to a post office box in an obscure Appalachian town.
Had any of these girls tried to follow the directions in the brochure and visit the camp for themselves on that day in February, they would have discovered that there was no such town and no such mountain and that no one within a fifty-mile radius had ever heard of Camp So-and-So.
“The DNA of this singular book winds strands of M. C. Escher, Joss Whedon, and Heathers—Mary McCoy has created something wonderful, wild, and weird. Don’t miss it.”—Martha Brockenbrough, author of The Game of Love and Death
Fugly
- Interest Level: Grade 9 – Grade 12
- Reading Level: Grade 8
A wrenchingly honest, thought-provoking exploration of a girl judged and dismissed by society who must break the cycle of shaming that traps her in her real life and comforts her in her online one.
In real life, eighteen-year-old Beth is overweight, shy, and geeky. She’s been bullied all her life, and her only refuge is food. Online, though, she’s a vicious troll who targets the beautiful, vain, oversharing It Girls of the internet. When she meets Tori, a fellow troll, she becomes her online girlfriend-slash-partner-in-crime.
But then Tori picks a target who’s a little too close to home for Beth. Unsettled, Beth decides to quit their online bullying partnership. The only problem is, Tori is not willing to let her go.