How to Make & Keep Friends: Tips for Kids to Overcome 50 Common Social Challenges

I bought your book off Amazon because my son started middle school (and is coming back to public school after being out of district for 4 years PLUS he is painfully shy) and I thought it would be helpful. I read it and LOVED it. I got it in August and showed my son. He said "Mom, I don't need that - I'm fine." Well, the 1st day of school starts - he comes home and I ask how his day was, etc. - everything was good. I then asked him who he sat with at lunch (my biggest fear for him - the all too scary lunch room :)) - he says to me "Well, I sat at a table with other kids, but didn't talk to anyone & I ate by myself. I was a little sad." As a mother, my heart broke. So, I said to him "Well, I can give you some pointers to start a conversation or join in on one." And I gave him pointers from your book (unbeknownst to him) and he was actually listening. He then goes over to where I had put your book and says "Maybe I can read a couple of the chapters in here." I said "Absolutely - that's what I got it for." Next day, he comes home and told me he sat with another boy at lunch & they talked the whole lunch period. I said "Oh, did he start talking to you?", and he said "No, I started talking to him. I did what you and that book said to do." So, cheers for writing such a wonderful book. It is a fabulous resource. THANK YOU

I don't have kids... My husband and I both are extreme introverts and have issues meeting people, making friends, working with people, etc... I suggested this book to my husband initially as a joke, then started reading the description and reviews, and thought it would be interesting to take a look at myself....It arrived, and I skimmed it for a few hours, reading parts where I have the most trouble with people (keep in mind I am in my 30's)... Some advice is really good, but there's a few tid bits in there that you need to be careful telling a kid to take as advice... I was bullied as a kid, and I know had I tried some of these, it would have made things much worse - and as a kid I was ignorant to that kind of observation and would have tried them without question. If you have a kid that's actually being bullied or has depression, please make sure you read this with them and help them understand some of these could make things worse - and the thing that really got me was some of the advice in the book made it seem like it was the reader's fault for not having friends... Yeah sometimes the kid with no friends brings it on themself, but there's a lot of times that kids are just mean and xenophobic. Please make sure your kid doesn't just blame themself for everything that doesn't go right.Again, there IS some great advice in this book, just make sure it fits your kid's situation.

High quality book with lots of good ideas for my son who struggles with social interactions.

This book is full of all those little social norms that kids are "supposed" to pick up on naturally. I pulled my son from school because he was very unhappy with his social situation there. I have found it really helpful for myself to be able to pinpoint what it is that he sometimes does that could be off-putting to other people. It really helps explain the problems and we like the little quiz questions at the end of each chapter, though I wish there were more than 2 example scenarios to practice with. Open-ended questions would be just as good (or better) for discussion rather than multiple-choice. My kids are getting much better at making friends when they go to the park or anywhere there are new faces. I like being able to say things like, "remember how we talked about matching your voice level to those around you?"

Highly recommend! I bought this book on the recommendation of a pediatric counselor. The format of the book is simplistic and provides a brief list of strategies for each topic -- this makes each topic easily digestible and contained on just a few pages. The list of strategies are based on commonsense and things that seem second nature to most adults; however, they provide an excellent reminder for children and great talking points for everyday encounters. I am reading this at a slow pace with my kiddos to provide gentle reminders for social interactions. This book could also be read independently by young readers, but I think the talking points and ability to share relatable circumstances is invaluable. Overall, I highly recommend this book.

Good information and easy to teach kids

We purchased this a few months ago to help our socially struggling 7 year old boy (he has a high IQ and low Social Intelligence). We didn't want to make him feel singled out, so we read it to all our kids as a family. We read one tip from this book each night before we read stories to our kids ages 8, 7, & 5. We have been doing this now for several weeks and already I've seen improvement in understanding and implementing social interactions. This book is really for every child and provides a great basis for discussion in our family. We find ourselves reading the tip and then the kids take turns sharing positive and negatives experiences they've had with that tip. It's opened their eyes to a new way of learning social cues. Every family will benefit by reading this book together.

As a professional within the Human Services Field, I have used this book on a regular basis since it was purchased on Amazon. I have shared it with foster and adoptive parents, caseworkers, parent-aides, and child advocates, who have also found it very useful in their work with children and families. "How to Make and Keep Friends" clearly identifies the social and problem solving skills that so many people take for granted (and that some just really don't know) and puts them into a useable, practical, and simple format that not only teaches, but also reminds us ALL about how we can better get along with each other!! This is a great, practical book that is useful for anyone working with children! Highly recommended!

This book is a really clear guide on how to behave in different situations around friends. It covers 50 topics in a couple of pages each.My 9y old boy engaged really quickly and wanted to hear more once, despite his reluctancy, I read him a couple of pages.I only wish it had loads more quiz questions to put each tip into a more relatable scenario for children.I thoroughly recommend this book to any child going into year 5, 6 or 7 at school.

My son was having a few friendship issues so as he is an avid reader I bought this book to give him some help. He is 10 and was able to read it on his own and followed lots of the advice which has helped him to resolve some problems. It is the sort of book that he will need to keep revisiting as it is easy to forget the strategies as a child. I would recommend this book to either share with a younger child (less than 10) or for an older child (10+) to read independently. Either way, it is good to discuss the strategies and advice with a grown up.

Brought for my son who was going through a hard time in primary school a few years back he is now in secondary school and we still reference the book would think it’s best suited for children 6-10 especially but the skills and tips are ageless to be honest

Read this with my little one to help her navigate the playground. Useful tips.

This a a great book - aimed at younger children but with tips that teenagers definitely need reminding about! I ended up reading the chapters with my children (several aged between 9 and 14) while they were eating dinner so they were a captive audience!