Book about children being different, friendship, how to play etc for a toddler who’s scared of other children

[OhRosalind]

Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for DS 2.5 who is very nervous of other kids. I’m thinking about something about playing with other kids, kids all being different, making friends, not being scared of boisterous/loud kids etc. Even better if it’s something in a preschool context as he is due to start soon. I’ve seen ‘Join in and play” but it looks like it’s aimed at older kids. I found a couple of animal books about friendship but something with humans would be even better.

We have some more general books about emotions/shyness but I’m looking for something about being around other children specifically. Any suggestions appreciated!

A Friend For Henry
Hello Friend
Alfie at Nursery School
Time To Make Friends
The Go Away Bird

Thank you so much for the ideas Ricecrispie off to look them up now.

There's a series of books by Tom Percival that I've found are great. My 5 year old has anxiety and Ruby's worry was great for her to understand.
There are others based on anger, making friends and being "normal" by being yourself etc. X

This book could be nice to show we all have things in common no matter what we look like... I know it's slightly different to what you're asking?

www.goodreads.com/book/show/46140553-there-s-a-boy-just-like-me

What age do you think the Tom Percival books are suitable for @jayde28 ? I saw them but I’m worried he’s a bit young still.

That’s a nice suggestion @dooadeer, it’s not quite what I was after but I think it could help reassure him that other kids are just like him really. Actually I bet there are other books on the diversity theme that would explore this idea, I’ll have a look.

I actually found Bing and then Paw Patrol really good for this. Lots of episodes about playing with others, how to share, what to do if the others don’t play properly or you fall out, etc.

And time! Lots of 2-4 year olds parallel play rather than playing with other kids. DS would never interact with strange kids when he was 2, and used to hide behind me if they approached. What helped him was nursery, where it was the same group of kids each day, and some supervised group playing (circle time etc), plus just getting older. He has plants of friends now, though he still would never approach a random child in the park or anything like that.

Thanks for the reassurance Change Bing definitely helps but I’ll have a look at Paw Patrol too. Its an anxiety issue rather than a parallel play one I think, since the second lockdown he has been anxious generally and around strangers and children especially. He is starting preschool shortly so hopefully that increased exposure will help.

There's a lovely usborne book called "I'm almost always kind" which is about interacting with other children?

Oh that looks nice Mammy, as do the others in the series.

Some great suggestions everyone, thank you so much.

Harry and the Dinosaurs go to School.

We bought our chosen a friendship journal book called my friends forever for children on Amazon. Basically it’s a journal where child can pass it around to their friends to fill in the information about themselves, and has a cute area to Draw a picture and place their picture.

I found it was a gentle and indirect way for my child to build connections with his friends.