Meeting a new teacher, learning new routines and making friends in the beginning of a new school year are all hard.
Emily Ley, bestselling author and mother of three, has recently published a beautiful children’s book about one of those challenging issues: making friends.
“You’ll Always Have a Friend: What To Do When the Lonelies Come” identifies some of the key concepts of loneliness that everyone deals with, no matter the age. Geared toward children ages 4 through 8, it combines encouragement for those who feel left out at times with practical tips children can use to find friends, such as treating others with kindness and simply walking up to another person and saying hello.
Peer relationships
The book doesn’t simply focus on building peer relationships. It also discusses other ways to drive away the “lonelies,” incorporating pets, adults and books.
It ends with the reassurance that everyone feels nervous when making new friends, that “you were made without mistakes” and to “just keep on being you.”
The illustrations by Romina Galotta feature representatives of children of all races and include a boy with a cochlear implant and a girl in a wheelchair. Her whimsical artwork portrays the various emotions felt in the situations described in the text.
Empowering children
“We all know what it’s like to feel left out, overlooked and unseen,” Ley said. “And this problem can be so much harder to face when you’re a child on the playground, a kid sitting alone in the school cafeteria or the new kid on the team.
“With ‘You’ll Always Have a Friend,’ I wanted to create a space where children feel seen, heard and valued, empowering them to reach out to others and build a world where everyone has a friend.”
To learn more about Emily Ley, go to www.emilyleybooks.com. “You’ll Always Have a Friend” can be bought on Amazon or through other popular booksellers.
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