How to Be a Friend (Dino Tales: Life Guides for Families) - Hardcover

Marc Brown, who was born in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1946, received great encouragement and support from his grandmother and uncle. Inspired by the books of Maurice Sendak, Brown decided to pursue his ambition of becoming an illustrator. After receiving a B.F.A. in painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art, he worked as a TV art director, a professor of mechanical drawing, and a freelance illustrator, before becoming a writer. In his books, he addresses the fears and problems which children face and events like friendship, family, school and pets. For his illustrations, Brown uses pencil with watercolor on a variety of papers to achieve different visual effects. The "Arthur" series, about the everyday adventures of a lovable aardvark, began in 1976 and continues to this day with 25 titles published. Brown has also created other series such as the "Rhymes" series, and the nonfiction "Dinosaur" series, which conveys messages of do's and don'ts. These series, like the stories of Arthur, hold the attention of young children while transporting their imaginations on magical journeys.

Though several of their earlier Dino Life Guides for Families have dealt with issues that are ostensibly weightier (death, divorce), the Browns are clearly tuned in to children's universal belief that having friends and feeling included are matters of paramount importance. Here they offer common-sense advice to help preschoolers and early elementary students form social habits that will serve them well in subsequent years, when relationships with peers can be so much more complicated and potentially unsettling. Concrete examples, addressed directly to the reader and cheerfully illustrated with voice-bubble cartoons starring likable dinos, make both positive and negative concepts easy to grasp. The Browns balance "Ways to be a friend" (share, stand up for your pal when people make fun of him, go along with another's idea about what to play, compliment a playmate "even when she wins and you lose") with "Ways not to be a friend" (blame others for mishaps, quit when you're losing, insist that a friend play with you only). Spotlighting some unavoidable trouble spots, they impart valuable tactics for coping with rejection, shyness, arguments, etc. Text and art work well together to underscore the book's bottom line, that being a friend "means treating others the way you would like them to treat you!" Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.