Outside in World | Browse Books

Use our Book Finder to search for books by Title (or part of the title), Author, ISBN, Age Range, Keyword, or Continent/Country. Then simply click the magnifying glass to start your search.

If a title starts with 'The', leave this out as this is added to the end of the title in brackets. funny pictures funny images funny photos really funny pictures

‘We need the literature of other countries to expand our
horizons and stimulate our ideas. Without it, we are not only
diminished, we are starved’
(The Times, Magnus Linklater 29/06/05)

Please email us to sign up to our Newsletter

Title: Making Friends

Author: Adelheid Dahimene

Translator: Miriam Tornquist and Johannes Contag (Translated from German)

Illustrator: Heide Stollinger

Publisher: Gecko Press

Date Published: 2008

Format: Hardback

Genre: Other

Book Category: Picture Book

Age Range: Under_5

Original Title: First published in German as Wir und das neue Tier, Residenz Verlag, Saltzburg, Austria, 2008

Country of Origin: Austria

Making Friends

by Adelheid Dahimene
Age Range: Under_5

In this tale about making, breaking and keeping friends, one day, the animals on the farm start to fight. They are fed up with having only each other to play with and each, in turn, complains in about the bad habits of the others. They all wish for a new friend so that they can do something different and exciting. When a pigeon flying past the farm suggests that if they want a new friend they should “make one”, the animals take him literally and all club together to provide one item to build a new chum – envisaged in the illustration as a scare-crow like creation. However, despite their efforts to each do something nice for him, their new friend doesn’t seem to want to talk to or play with them. Feeling rebuffed, the animals praise each other’s efforts to do something kind and admire their talents. By using these skills to perform good deeds to help each other, instead of their false friend, the animals learn to appreciate each other again in new ways. Finally, they have a party, which they all attend as the best of friends.

Heide Stöllinger has created some wonderful illustrations. The animals are drawn in great detail and are very life-like to look at, and their “friend” is a very funny, completely nonsensical drawing that children will love to laugh at. The two-year-old I read this to adored how the animals reminded her so much of her own pets, and the “friend” produced lots of giggles as we looked at what he was made of, imagined building him and tried to imagine him coming alive!

The simple sentences and words in this story make the plot very clear for small children. As the animals talk to each other in turn we see equal amounts of all characters – so everyone can see their favourite- and Adelheid Dahimène’s story is charming, showing children how important it is to appreciate their friends and how to help others.

Abby Phillips (2010)

buy now from amazon