Unlikely Friendships

Unlikely Friendships is not a typical book you would see in a classroom, more like a coffee table at a friends house. However, I used this book with my reading buddy that loves animals and aspires to be a veterinarian. Now that I have used the book I have been made aware of all the ways a teacher can use it in the classroom.

The book is filled with 46 stories about different animals that found friendship in each other. The tales of friendship range from a lion, a tiger, and a bear to a snake and a hamster (which would be more thought of as dinner not a friendship). The stories and the photos in this book are sure to capture children and adults alike.

Aside from using this book on an individual basis with children I also thought it would be a great read-aloud book for the whole classroom. Many of the tales are so beautiful and inspiring. I think that the stories could be read aloud for many different reasons and purposes. One idea I had was that I could introduce the book by reading a story. On the next days I thought I could introduce just the title and have the children use their critical thinking to write about how they think that animals met and why they became friends. I think that it could get older children thinking about friendships and why they are are so important. I also think that the book shows many different types of tolerance so it could be used when teaching students about being tolerant. I think that this book would be appropriate for independent reading at the middle school level but the concepts would be appropriate for children down to third-grade.