The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Friends

Sister and Lizzie are best friends and do everything together. But sometimes Lizzie can be just too bossy. And sometimes Sister wants to do everything her way. When the two cubs start playing school, it comes to head over who gets to be the teacher. This story teaches forgiveness and understanding that to be a good friend it's about giving, not just taking.

I kept the Berenstain Bear books from when I was a kid and now my 6 year old read them. The are all great books to start a conversation with your child about the topic. In this one, a very familiar situation arises between young friends (both want control and get in a fight. Mama Bear talks with Sister and asks her to consider her friend's feelings. Then the situation is resolved when the friend comes over to return a favorite toy. These books aren't meant to offer coping strategies or tell the kids how to handle the situation but they are great to help get a conversation started between parents and kids and start the problem-solving process in the child.

The world lost a real gem of a writer when Stan Berenstain passed on November 29. Together, Berenstain and his wife, Jan, and eventually their two sons, created books featuring lovable but flawed characters who tackle just about every real issue that faces families. All kids (and most adults) have some trouble when it comes to making friends and maintaining friendships. It's not always easy! This book can help open up a good dialogue with your kids about what friendship means, how to be a good friend, what to do when you have problems with friends, and so on. It tells the story in a gentle way that kids will find not only informative, but entertaining and even funny, as well. Wonderful!

This is really a nice book to help with friends. It's funny how we received this book at the same time our neighbor boy is having the exact same trouble with someone who just moved in. In a time and era where "bullying' other kids has become very popular to the point of articles being published in the local papers here, this book definitely handles what to do when a friend isn't quite the friend you had hoped he/she would be. This one ends with the friends being friends again and how they worked out their differences. One of the most important aspects in this book I think is that they always show either the new girl's mother or Mama Bear in the picture when a resolution needs to take place between the two girls. It is subtle, but I think this is lacking today - parental intervention when children don't exactly have the skills available to help them in a situation like this. This is a great book to have with something that unfortunately, has become quite a problem in Columbus, Ohio.

I gave this book a 5 star review because it teaches children that arguing and fighting is not the way to solve your probleems you have to talk through them. This book also has a lot of pictures that kids would like.