This book is adorable. It has such a wonderful message about friendship and how to deal with rough patches in a friendship. And the pictures are really cute!

Jennifer Wolfthal offers a book worthy of reading and ready for the classroom shelf. It’s an attractive use of words and pictures, and so much humanity.

"A Real Friend" by Jennifer Wolfthal tells the story of two young best friends who are usually inseparable. After some small differences of opinions, they have a small argument and they decide they don't want to hangout anymore. Instead, the boys opt to create some robots to do their normal activities with. However, things don't go according to the plan. Will the two boys ever be friends again?

Our family enjoyed this book as we read it aloud together. As a parent, I didn't love some of the behavior that the boys exhibited. The story mentions how one of the kids doesn't like talking about bugs "Yuck" and the kids are picky about what they eat. As a parent, it makes me worry that by reading things like this... my own kids would pick up some of these negative attitudes or behaviors. This is the point of the story though as in the end, the boys realize that life with their best friend is way better than any other option. Overall, the story was good and easy to read aloud. but I would have preferred the negative behavior in the beginning of the book to be slightly different.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing the book with me in exchange for an honest review.

Benny and Max love spending time together. They are best friends and they play Alien Invaders, hide-and-seek and enjoy nutritious lunches together. As they spend more and more time playing they come to the realization that you can't always have your own way and that the other guy just might like to have his own opinion on things too. Eventually Max starts getting on Benny's nerves and he decides that's enough. Exasperated Benny finally sends Max packing. As Max heads home he shouts...

"Good! You're not my best friend anymore!"
"Good! I'll find a new best friend!" Benny yelled.

Benny creatively constructs a robot using odds and ends from around his house and dubs him Jax. Jax is a perfect companion but not a responsive "friend" like his ex-friend Max. It's very heartwarming when the two once again reunite and appreciate each other's differences.

This book celebrates the value of friendship and the importance of acceptance, problem solving and compromise. The illustrations make the text come alive and kids will relate to the message. I highly recommend this book.

Benny and Max are best friends until Max begins to annoy Benny. A cute, well-illustrated story about how important strong friendships are, despite the annoying quirks each person may have.

A Real Friend by Jennifer Wolfthal is a beautifully illustrated book about problems that arise during friendships and what children should, and shouldn't, do when these problems arise. The books illustrations kept my toddler son's attention. I felt like the wording was a little off on one or two pages, but other than that I had a good time reading this to my kids. The message of the story will be easy for target age range to understand.

What happens when your perfect friend annoys you? It doesn't have to be a friend. It could be a brother or a sister, or a cousin. Will your kiddo see themselves in this funny picture book of how friends can be annoying and then the big fight happens. These two find some new friends only to miss each other. What makes the perfect friend? Accepting each other even when we are annoying.

Good read to read with those kiddos.

A special thank you Clavis Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review

The Perfect Friend (Real Friend)
by Jennifer Wolfthal
the young boys learn that having your own way is not always the best, they use their imagination and make the perfect friend, but find that it is boring having your own way. a great book for teaching kids socialization and imagination to solve problems. It would be a great book to help children in the lower grades learn how to work and compromise to find solutions to the problems they have.

Cute story of two imaginative little boys that can't seem to see eye to eye on how to play together. I love that they become friends again. A little add in about how the compromised to make their friendship work would have been nice though.

In a real friend, Benny and Max have been spending too much time together. Max is getting on Benny's nerves (and rightfully so, in my opinion). Things blow up amd they refuse to speak to each other and make new friends. This book can be very helpful for helping navigate the inevitable fights between kids. I loved the creativity of the new friends in this book, including their names.

Sometimes there are different rules in the world of children, that sometimes we as adults do not quite understand. Anyone who has children will surely confirm that every child almost always wants to be right, to be a winner and everything else to be done the way only a child wants. Add another child, or more of them in the picture and that is when the fighting and crying begin. Even though children are more or less familiar with the concept of giving and taking, their desires always come first.

That's why A Real Friend by Jennifer Wolfthale is just a fantastic choice with which we can help children understand the essence of sharing, compromise and friendship. Through a series of interesting situations arranged through fantastic illustrations, A Real Friend takes the children in the world of two friends Max annoys Benny, best friends who cannot compromise, fight and alienate themselves, only to realize the true value of their friendship. The very concept on which the action is presented offers a great opportunity for children to understand what it means to be a friend, what we gain and what we lose with friendship.It provides more opportunities which you can use to discuss important aspects of friendship with your kid.

The story is easy to read, with appropriate language structures that fully correspond to the level of children. The beautiful illustrations, as well as the interesting content, are enough to interest the child.All in all, it is an excellent read for preschoolers as well as slightly older children.

Thank you to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for granting me early access to A Real Friend in exchange for an honest review.

A Real Friend is the story of Benny's fight with his best friend Max and how he tries to replace his friend with a cardboard box robot named Jax.

This story is adorable! These two little boys are annoyed with each other over little things, but when they decide not to be friends they learn that the little things weren't so bad after all and that they'd really rather have an imperfect real friend than a silent, inanimate cardboard robot friend. The artwork in this book reminded me of one of the Jillians Jiggs books that my sister and I loved so much growing up in the 90s.

This is a great book for preschool and up and will definitely become a favourite for some kids. I'll be sure to recommend this to the parents and teachers of small kids in my life.

Benny and Max are friends, but soon find out they have a lot of differences. Benny decides to make his own best friend and builds a robot. After playing with his robot, Benny realizes he may not be as much fun as he thought. He misses the interaction he had with Max. Now, Benny and Max have the robot to play with and become friends again.

This was a great story to teach kids about getting along and having differences among ourselves.

Perfect story for kids to learn you aren't always going to get along or agree with your friends or anyone for that matter. This shows them that compromising sometimes makes for a wonderful friendship.

Benny & Max were friends... but friends aren't always happy with each other, all the time.
Friends don't always have the same favourite things but they're still friends.
When Benny gets tired of doing the same things with Max he sends him home. What will he do to get a new friend? He has the best idea. Where does the new best friend come from? Will there be more than one? You'll have to read this fun story to find out!
What does Max do when he isn't playing with Benny anymore? Their solutions will make you smile.

The illustrations by Judi Abbot are colourful & full of joy. They also have lovely details to add potential conversation whilst or after reading but not too much on the page to be too busy.
Life lessons wrapped in a lovely story. Friendships don't have to be perfect but they can always be special.

A Real Friend is a lovely book, but for comprehension - it is American based with language that may confuse a class of younger children - peanut butter and jelly/pickles etc.

A Real Friend tells the story of two young boys who have a small friendship incident - one feels left out and feels that the other always get his own way - whether that's lunch choices or sharing time on the computer.
They part ways for a time, build themselves robot 'friends' only to come back together when they realise that they miss each other. The story tells of friendship, sharing and relationships.

A great lesson for children about how you aren't always going to agree with your friends, but how making up with them is worth it!

A pleasant picture book with just a couple of sentences per page, this successfully shows two small boys who fall out, leaving one to spend life with an inert robot figure he's built himself out of junk. It's a simple lesson about how what might seem to be the end of a friendship never actually needs to be – but the whole thing kind of ignores everything that made the issue between them in the first place. So while this is heart-warming in showing the bounce this relationship had, it can't really get that high a mark, as it left too much that was clearly a problem behaviour unresolved. Three and a half stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic copy to read and review.

I am a sucker for books on friendship and this one fits the bill perfectly! Two friends get in a fight and declare they are no longer best friends. They each create their own new robot friend. The story and illustrations are super cute and the message of the story will be a great talking point for kids to explore their own feelings and friendships.

Fantastic!!! A really appropriate book for my 4 year old about why sharing and taking turns with his sister is so much better than having it all to himself. This book gave us the opportunity to have a funny discussion.