Hunter's Best Friend at School - Comfortable & Stylish Backpack for Students, Perfect for School, College & Outdoor Adventures

We all know that it's important -- and hard -- to stand up to people we don't know well... But let's be honest for a minute. It's just as important, and often much harder, to stand up to our friends when they do wrong. And unfortunately, children's books about standing up to our friends seem much harder to find! For an elementary audience, you all know that I love The Hundred Dresses. Today, I've got a delightful picture book aimed at younger readers and listeners about doing the right thing when your best friend is trying hard to pull you off track -- Hunter's Best Friend at School.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Hunter and Stripe are best friends who like all the same things and love to do everything together. All is good until one day, Stripe comes to school "in a mischief-making mood." Playful and distracting, he tries Hunter into his troublemaking with him.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀And Hunter... Stripe's antics look like so much fun, and he knows he always has fun doing whatever Stripe is doing. So, he joins in, but following Stripe’s choices doesn’t bring Hunter any joy. In fact, Hunter feels "awful" and the rest of his day is "terrible."
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀We've all been in this position, faced by a choice to do the right thing, or to go along with what our best friend is doing. It is SO HARD to do what our hearts tell us is right when we may risk disappointing or alienating our best friends.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Fortunately, Hunter's mother has been in this quandary before, too, and she offers Hunter some sage advice: "Being a best friend doesn't always mean following along. Sometimes being a best friend means you have to help your friend to be his best self."⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Of course, Hunter has a chance to put this advice in action the very next day, when Stripe indeed begins to act up again. Rather than following along this time, Hunter leads by example. No, he never uses his words to stand up to Stripe, but as we all know, sometimes actions speak louder than words.