The Buddy Bench
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Having seen what being left out is like, children become agents of change, convincing their teacher to let them build a buddy bench.
A school playground can be a solitary place for a kid without playmates; in one survey, 80 percent of 8- to 10-year-old respondents described being lonely at some point during a school day.
Patty Brozo’s cast of kids brings a playground to raucous life, and Mike Deas’s illustrations invest their games with imaginary planes to fly, dragons to tame, and elephants to ride. And these kids match their imaginations with empathy, identifying and swooping up the lonely among them.
Buddy benches are appearing in schoolyards around the country. Introduced from Germany in 2014, the concept is simple: When a child sits on the bench, it’s a signal to other kids to ask him or her to play.
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Miss Mellon's class is eager for recess, but on the playground, some children are left out. "Molly said to Brianne, Let's play follow the leader.' They walked right by Emma but just didn't see her," writes Brozo. But kind individuals do notice their peers watching from the sidelines, and after a number of kids express anxieties (ranging from being new to having holey clothes), the students decide to make a "Buddy Bench," where classmates can sit to let others know that they want to make friends. Deas illustrates inky figures energetically engaged in playground activities, along with fantasy play characters (a pink dinosaur, a blue elephant). The students' self-guided innovation is idealistic, but kids who recognize themselves in the playground scenario may well take the sentiment to heart. Back matter offers context about the growth of buddy benches around the world. Ages 5 10.
