Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
A New Friend
Suzanne Barchers · 2012
62/100
👎 Skip It
A tidy early-reader with verified reading metrics, a credentialed author, and a message about forgiveness and empathy that fits naturally in faith-family homes. It does its job — helping young readers build fluency while learning to reconcile with friends — but it's a functional classroom tool more than a memorable story. Worth knowing about for librarians and teachers; families have better options for home bookshelves.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
📚 Buy the book ↗📱 Read on Kindle ↗🎧 Listen on Audible ↗ affiliate links · support the site, never the verdict
As an Amazon Associate and Audible affiliate, Penny earns from qualifying purchases. This never affects the verdict — see our affiliate disclosure.
Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
Faith & family safety88
Substance / usefulness55
Craft & writing59
Originality38
Evidence & accuracy64
Hype vs delivers62
Age-fit75
👁 Human-eye gut-check59
Penny’s verdict62
Cross-pollinate