Do You Want to Be My Friend? | Eric Carle

Do You Want to Be My Friend? | Eric Carle | Eric Carle sends a realistic message

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Do You Want to Be ...

	Do You Want to Be My Friend? Eric Carle Philomel, 1988 - 28 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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From horse to crocodile to giraffe, no one wants to be the little mouse's friend, until he meets up with a friendly, familiar face--and not a moment too soon! Full color.

OPENS the IMAGINATION

I loved this book. Because it has hardly any dialogue, it challenges the imagination of the "reader." It can be read over and over with never having the same story. Having read it to my two toddlers, I have always told the story in a positive light where the mouse plays with all of the animals along his way home. At the end of my version of the story, the mouse finds his brother or sister where they run off to their special fort. Each time I've read it, the story and dialogue have been slightly and sometimes widely different from the other times. I think that the book opens up so many possibilities and stretches the imagination. For young toddlers flipping through the book on their own, it also encourages that the pages be turned in order as the mouse follows the tail of his next friend and leaves the child to figure out to which animal each tail belongs. The pictures are colorful and simple and as beautiful as any of pictures of other Eric Carle books. Highly recommended for those who like open-ended stories!

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Eric Carle sends a realistic message

The book seems to present a narrative similar to P.D. Eastman's Are You My Mother?, which presents the very normal process whereby a lost young bird searches out the identity of its as-yet-unseen mother by unsuccessfully speaking to, among other other things, a boat, a plane, and a cow. The difference, as I see it, between the two, is that every attempted friendship sought out by the mouse in Carle's story is with another creature, until he finds the companionship most suited to him, that being with his own species. What a young child might take from this is probably very basic: mice probably find more in common with other mice. However, if applied to human relationships, it may be that the "message," if there is one at this level to deal with, probably favors the notion that of all the possible friends out there for someone, one is more suited to a person than all the rest. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the book condones some kind of rejection, because, after all, in real life it does take some effort for any child to find a special friend. Further, I wouldn't say that the book reinforces the idea that only people like us can be our friends because, once again, it is a good thing to encourage a child to imagine a uniquely suitable friend just for him or her. If they don't seek out the child who is most different from everyone else, it does not mean that child is insensitive, just that finding a friend might be more spontaneous and innocent than we parents and teachers may like to admit-even when the child finds someone who happens to look like him or her.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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