Don't Need Friends - Carolyn Crimi

Undeniably sweet tale avoids being saccharine.

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Common Sense rates it
4
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Book details
  • Author:Carolyn Crimi
  • # of pages: 30
  • Publisher:Apple
  • Original Publication Date: 01/01/1999
  • Genre: Fiction - Friendship
  • Paperback: $6.99
  • Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: Ages 4-8
  • Read Aloud: 4-6
  • Read Alone: 6-8

Parents need to know

Parents need to know that the story line is greatly enhanced by the illustrations, which sympathetically portray the lives and looks of the junkyard creatures without sentimentalizing them.

Families can talk about friendship and why we need friends. Why does Rat deny his need for friends at first? What convinces him that he really does need friends in his life?

Message

Social Behavior:

Consumerism:

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Violence

Sex

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Amy Brotman

Rat lives in a friendly community of junkyard-dwelling animals, but when his best friend leaves, he becomes bitter and aloof. He meets his match in a new arrival, Dog, who is even more antisocial than he is. Exploring ideas of community and friendship, the story shows how individuals can deal with hurt and can bravely form new attachments.



Is it any good?

4

Perhaps more than anyone, young children understand the importance, and the basic simplicity, of friendship. Lacking the jobs, financial concerns, and outside interests with which grown-ups tend to fill their lives, children know that friends are what you need to make the world a nicer and more comfortable place. Losing a friend, however, is painful, and avoiding a repetition of that pain can seem all-important.

Author Carolyn Crimi looks at one of the ways in which we try to protect ourselves from hurt and disappointment. Children can readily see that Rat's attempt to deny his need for friends is self-defeating, but they also sympathize with his bluff and are touched when Rat and Dog gain enough trust to reveal (rather backhandedly) the kind hearts beneath their rough exteriors.

Although undeniably sweet, as one six-year-old called the story, it avoids being saccharine. Much of the credit goes to the illustrations, which effectively convey the atmosphere of the junkyard and the personalities of the characters.

The scruffy denizens of the junkyard are a refreshing change from the many cuddly, bucolic animals usually residing in children's literature. Rats, possums, pigeons, and ownerless dogs: They live on the edges of "official" society in their own messy but companionable world, preoccupied with food and warmth--both physical and emotional. Rather like children, in fact.

For another take on the theme of coping with separation from a friend, check out Bernard Waber's Ira Says Goodbye.

Parents and kids say

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4

Posted on 07/27/06 by Anonymous Adult contributor

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4

Posted on 07/27/06 by Anonymous Adult contributor

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