The Best Books About Friendship and Getting Along With Others
Help your students learn how to play nicely in the classroom.
Books about friendship and getting along with others — while celebrating kindness, empathy, and inclusion among their peers — fosters a more productive learning environment for all students. Having an effective classroom library is key to achieving this goal!
While students are bound to encounter conflict and disagreements, these moments are the perfect opportunity to improve classroom behavior by teaching kids to react with patience and understanding. By reading and discussing stories together, students can learn to navigate and cope with complex emotions like frustration, anger, sadness, disappointment, and fear. Check out all of the best SEL books to share.
During read-aloud time, start a conversation by asking your students about a time they felt good about getting along with their peers or a time when they peacefully resolved an argument. Ask them how they did it and why they chose to respond with kindness, and how it made them and their friends feel.
Shop all books about friendship and getting along with others at The Teacher Store.
Told in English and Spanish with vivid, energetic illustrations, this is the story of a pair of roosters who begin a soccer game and build a friendship as they discover each other's language.
What if a dinosaur's friends come to play? Does he mope, does he pout if he can't get his way? Does he hide all his dump trucks, refusing to share? Does he throw his friends' coloring books up in the air? Time and time again, children are told to play nice. This brilliantly illustrated board book is packed with rhymes that will teach children how.
Follow little llama, who is depicted in a wheelchair, and friends on their adventures, rendered in vibrant, detailed art featuring an adorable cast of animal friends.
Badgers have always lived under the old oak tree. But one day, a terrible storm arrives. Big-hearted Badger works hard to keep his friends safe from the bad weather, protecting burrows and rescuing nests. But who will look after Badger's home in the old oak tree?
Swim along with mermaid Vera and octo-kid Beaker! In these three stories, Vera and Beaker make a new friend with a powerful baby mantis shrimp. Together, they explore the town of Tidal Grove. Then they play fun underwater games! Young readers will love discovering Vera and Beaker's funny adventures and learning nonfiction information about mantis shrimp. Did you know that mantis shrimp are small but very powerful? They can punch the water to create shockwaves!
This rhyming guide to social skills is a good introduction for young children to the power of kindness.
After a squabble, best friends walk the up-and-down road to reconciliation.
Plankton wants Crabby to play a game. Plankton tries to get Crabby to play Simon Says, Tag, and Hide-and-Seek. But Crabby does NOT want to play with Plankton. Will Plankton give up? Or will Crabby finally play along? With comic speech bubbles and full-color artwork throughout, Geisel Award Honoree Jonathan Fenske's early reader series is sure to be a hit with new readers!
Princess Truly knows how to be a good friend! With a twinkle from her magical, sparkling curls and her can-do attitude, she helps her friends Lizzie and May build a best friends' clubhouse. Then they have a sleepover with all their pets! And when Lizzie's kitty is wide awake at the end of the night, Princess Truly "rocks" him to sleep with a jamming bedtime song. These funny and empowering short stories with full-color artwork and easy-to-read rhyming text throughout are perfect for new readers!
A girl in a red hat finds the courage to be kind to the new student in class. Her kindness spreads, until her whole community experiences the magical shift that happens when people understand what it means to be kind, and act on their best impulses!
Oskar and Aya are best friends who do everything together. Oskar especially loves taking Aya to the construction site where his aunt works. While most of the time they have loads of fun together, sometimes Oskar feels sad and wants to be alone. And that can leave Aya feeling helpless.
What is the best way to be a friend when someone is hurting?
Aya has an idea and goes to the construction site to see if Oskar's aunt and friends can help her put it into motion. They are missing Oskar too.
When Alma finds large empty cardboard box she thinks it will make the perfect clubhouse for her and her friends! The kids quickly get to work on making the cardboard box feel truly special but when more and more of Alma's friends want in on the clubhouse they start running into space issues. Can Alma find a way to include everyone?
Best friends Unicorn and Yeti have lots of fun in these sparkly, laugh-out-loud stories. With full-color artwork, speech bubbles, and easy-to-read text throughout, this adorable book is perfect for new readers!
When Amelia Bedelia's neighbor and very best friend Jen moves away, Amelia Bedelia is sad. One day, a new neighbor moves in. But she isn't anything at all like Jen. Or is she?
From esteemed author and speaker Trudy Ludwig and acclaimed illustrator Patrice Barton, this gentle story shows how small acts of kindness can help children feel included and allow them to flourish.
Clarke is new to town and ready to explore. Miguel loves meeting new people and going on adventures. With their walkie-talkies and compass in hand, these new friends map out their neighborhood and search for hidden treasure!
Bo Tinseltail loves going to Sparklegrove School with the other unicorns. Every unicorn has a magical power. Bo is a Wish Unicorn with the power to grant wishes. Bo has lots of friends, but one thing Bo wants more than anything is a best friend. When a new unicorn named Sunny Huckleberry pops into the forest, will Bo's big wish finally come true? And what will Sunny's Unicorn Power be?
Squizzard and Toothy are best friends, but one day Squizzard's bossiness causes a rift in their friendship. A wonderfully silly young graphic novel about fin-tastic friends and first fights.
Paperback Book
Clementine Fox and the Great Island Adventure: A Graphic Novel (Clementine Fox #1)
This is Leigh Luna's funny and charming debut graphic novel about a group of young animals who set out on an adventure and learn the true value of friendship, family, and what it means to stick together and work things out!
In Cat Kid Comic Club, Li'l Petey, Flippy, and Molly introduce twenty-one rambunctious, funny, and talented baby frogs to the art of comic making. As the story unwinds with mishaps and hilarity, readers get to see the progress, mistakes, and improvements that come with practice and persistence.
Joe and Ravi might be from very different places, but they're both stuck in the same place: school. Joe's lived in the same town all his life, and was doing just fine until his best friends moved away and left him on his own. Ravi's family just moved to America from India, and he's finding it pretty hard to figure out where he fits in. Joe and Ravi don't think they have anything in common, but soon enough they have a common enemy (the biggest bully in their class) and a common mission: to take control of their lives over the course of a single crazy week.
This Breakfast Club-inspired story by Christina Diaz Gonzalez, award-winning author of Concealed, and Gabriela Epstein, illustrator of two Baby-Sitters Club graphic novel adaptations, is a must-have graphic novel about unexpected friendships and being seen for who you really are.
Twelve-year-old Jude struggles with some things: focusing at school, feeling like everything rests on their shoulders, not being able to come out as nonbinary to their old-fashioned grandparents. But Jude doesn't struggle with Dallas, their best friend in the whole world. Their person.
Jude and Dallas's world changes when they learn Stevie, a girl in their class, has been ousted from the popular clique at school. Worried it had something to do with Stevie's rumored crush on another girl, Jude reaches out to see if Stevie is okay. Stevie quickly becomes an important friend to Jude and Dallas, whose unwavering acceptance of her is a stark contrast to the tests and dysfunction she experienced with her former friend group.
As their friendship deepens and the three open up to each other, Stevie's unconditional and open acceptance when Jude comes out to her motivates them to create a queer safe space in their community. Jude has the courage and determination it takes to create the first Diversity Club in their community, but will they be able to find the support they need to make it happen?
Manu and her best friend, Josefina, live at a magical school for girls, and Manu is always getting into trouble. The headmistress believes that Manu has the potential to help people with her magic, but Manu would rather have fun than fall in line. One day, a prank goes seriously wrong, and Josefina gets angry and wishes for Manu's magic to disappear... and it does. Manu uses a dangerous spell to restore it, but it makes her magic too powerful and nearly impossible to control. Great power comes at a cost, and it may be a price that Manu isn't able to pay!
Spring semester is here and Maggie is killing it! Her grades are up, she's loving outdoor track and field, and being a seventh grader means the awesome spring break trip to St. Augustine is almost here. She can't wait for her first overnight trip away from her overprotective parents, lovesick sister, and busybody abuela. Nothing will get in the way of Maggie having the best time ever with her two best friends, Zoey and Julian!
But all of Maggie's plans for their unforgettable trip start to fall apart as everyone gets carried away with the upcoming dance instead. Even Julian has a crush―throwing their group dynamic into turmoil when he asks the new girl to be his date. Zoey's so stressed with school that her straight A streak is in trouble . . . and why can't Maggie stop thinking about Eerie Eddie? The three best friends have been inseparable for years, but everything is changing as everyone splits into twos, leaving Maggie unsure of where―and with who―she still fits.
Megan Wagner Lloyd and Michelle Mee Nutter have once again teamed up to tell a funny, heartfelt, and charming story of family, friendship, and growing up.
Becca Singer is having the Worst Day Ever. Her best friend, Harper, dumped her, and Becca is totally friendless and alone.
Then the box arrives in the mail.
Inside the box? One bracelet, plus a mysterious note telling Becca to make a wish. So Becca puts on the bracelet-why not, right?-and wishes to have friends. Lots of friends. So many friends.
And just like that, the magic works. Suddenly, EVERYONE wants to be Becca's BFF, from all the kids at school to the teachers (!) to her own mom (!!).As things spin out of control, Becca starts to wonder: Is this wish a curse?
Tyrell is finishing out his final year at Marcus Garvey Elementary. This time, without his best friend, Boogie. But they won't be apart for too much longer! The Tyrell Show is going on the road to visit Boogie in the Wild West. But when Tyrell shares the news of his visit with his best friend, Boogie starts acting strangely. What's going on? Tyrell is determined to get to the bottom of it. As it turns out, Boogie has a bully! Well, that's not going to fly with Tyrell. Get ready for the showdown of the decade in The Tyrell Show: Season Two!