What Picture Book Would You Choose for Relationships and Communication?

Recently I was invited to a second grade class for a read aloud. I always like to ask the teacher if there’s a special theme they would like to me to read about when I visit. This teacher asked me to focus on relationships and communication. Ironically, I had several books pulled based on a catalog search, but… then a book just stood out on it’s own from the stacks: Don’t Need Friends, by Carolyn Crimi and illustrated by Lyn Munsinger.

This story about a grumpy old rat and a grumpy old dog is super cute. They are both beyond irritable, and they make sure the other one knows it: “Don’t you come near me,” snarled dog. Meanwhile Rat continually says the same: “Don’t you come over here, either!” Back and forth these two old grumps go until finally they realize they can go ahead and just be grumpy together.

The second graders enjoyed Don’t Need Friends–realizing that finding grumpiness as a commonality isn’t so bad as long as they have their friendship.