My New Best Friend

by Sara Marlowe

[Joni Reads]

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a great idea for a book! I read this to my 2 year old twins. After doing so I realize that my 8 year old will get more out of this than they will.

The book takes you through the main character talking about her new best friend and all the things they do together like play together, be supportive, be comforting, etc. Sure sounds like a great friend! Well we come to discover that the girl's new best friend is herself!

I love this idea for a couple of reasons. One is that it highlights self esteem and knowing your own worth. They say you can never really love someone until you love yourself. That is more of an adult idea but I see this as being true with children as well. You have to be gentle with yourself in order to be a good friend to others.

The second reason is that while discussing all the things her friend does for her she is also explaining what it means to be a good friend to others. I think this is something that kids will really like and even having something to mentally refer back to and think "I can support my friend by comforting her like in the book".

I also liked at the end how there was an informational page about self compassion and an explanation about it and why it is so important. That was great to see. I wish there would have a been a bit more information on how to drive the lesson home a bit more or role playing activities, something like that but regardless it was a good informational page in the back.

I would say this book is good for preschool and up. My soon to be 3 year olds didn't get much out of it but I can see ages 4 and up really liking the lessons in it. You could even branch off with it and ask your child about times when they could have been nicer to themselves or to someone else. Great book to open up discussions between parent and child. I would definitely recommend this book.