Be a Friend

Dennis communicates entirely through mime — invisible objects, acted-out emotions, red-dotted lines tracing the invisible — and Salina Yoon turns that quiet premise into one of the most original friendship stories in recent picture books. When Dennis meets Joy, the book's warmth comes not from Dennis changing but from Joy meeting him exactly where he is. That's the real message here: true friends don't ask you to be different. The spare, muted illustrations give the red-dotted mime lines room to pop, and young children will find themselves drawn into the imaginative game. The only honest caveat is that the minimal text leaves some stories to be inferred rather than told. But for read-alouds about kindness and belonging, this one earns its starred reviews. Fully clean, deeply gentle, and genuinely original.