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The Friendly Book
I like cars / Red cars, green cars / Sports limousine cars / I like cars . . .Since 1954 parents and children have adored The Friendly Book, where everything is likable, from bugs to boats and from cars to stars. Garth Williams’s lively illustrations are a perfect counterpart to Margaret Wise Brown’s playful lists of wonderful things.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1954
230 people want to read
About the author
Margaret Wise Brown
395 books1,219 followersMargaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well.
Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.
She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.
She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.
Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.
Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading.
She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them.
She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper.
Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
August 20, 2013
I love this book and so do my kids (twin boys, age 3.5). The text is simple and fun to read, listing different likes; boats, trains, whistles, etc. In the end, it comes around to "I like people," and it's very sweet. My kids just about know it word for word. Even better than the text is the illustrations by Garth Williams. He is one of my favorite illustrators and his artwork for The Friendly book is beyond perfect. There's all kinds of animals driving all kinds of trains, boats and cars. His illustrations give you the feeling that he had as much fun creating them as they are to look at--so many little details to find. Every kid should own a copy!
February 2, 2022
This was a childhood major favorite, but I had somehow forgotten it until my sister cleverly found me a copy and sent it as a present. I love it just as much as I used to. What a beautiful, bolstering, set of lists. Such heart and warmth.
January 4, 2017
A strange cross between what I'd normally expect from Margaret Wise Brown and Dr. Seuss. The text varied from page to page, sometimes all illustrated and sometimes leaving a small person asking "What type of {X} is that?"
Good for a beginning reader, if only I could encourage looking at the words rather than just guessing from the pictures!
Good for a beginning reader, if only I could encourage looking at the words rather than just guessing from the pictures!
January 25, 2010
The lulling repetition puts you into a nice sleepy state. You like the way I. says "doggy dog." You think the bunny waiting in the car to get the tire fixed feels sad. You like to point out the mama and baby dog on the bench, and the submarine that is bumping the rowboat.
March 20, 2021
Everything is beautiful in this world that Wise Brown has created here.
It is a nicely illustrated and simple book, does it need to be more realistic for the world we really live in?
Well maybe.
But maybe it is also good to see the beauty in things that you may not always see.
Anyway that is for other people to discuss, it is also a good little picture book.
It is a nicely illustrated and simple book, does it need to be more realistic for the world we really live in?
Well maybe.
But maybe it is also good to see the beauty in things that you may not always see.
Anyway that is for other people to discuss, it is also a good little picture book.
March 15, 2024
I was initially confused because of the slightly more abstract relationship between the title and the text (as these things go). It is admittedly a somewhat banal book in a very literal way but the diction is fun and it was a grand ol time spitting it once I got in the rhythm. The art is also rather charming.
December 14, 2022
Margaret Wise Brown... for as well known as she is as a children's author, sometimes I just don't get her.
While the illustrations of this book are indeed friendly due to Garth Williams expertise, this is more so a long list of things people like. Boats, trains, cars, colors - they like it all.
While the illustrations of this book are indeed friendly due to Garth Williams expertise, this is more so a long list of things people like. Boats, trains, cars, colors - they like it all.
May 15, 2019
This is just an odd book.
May 28, 2019
Mukavasti riimitelty kirja. Tarina alkaa kulkuneuvoista ja päättyy siihen, että kaikki pitävät runoilijasta! Tämä yksityiskohta hieman huvitti minua.
April 18, 2020
Extremely repetitive, especially in areas that isn’t necessary. It makes the story seem long winded and boring. The pictures were colourful and made the book more than the written words did.
December 20, 2020
Simple but a hit
January 15, 2021
Garth Williams is a genius. His illustrations are the glue that holds this book together. I read it many, many times as a child.
June 29, 2021
I like the style it was written in but some parts were just odd.
March 19, 2023
I love reading this book to my son. It is a quick and fun read and my son loves the many descriptions of cars, trains, and boats!
August 16, 2018
This is another favorite of mine when growing up as a little kid. The story is a simple selection of things that the author likes. Everything from cars, dogs, and snow. The illustrations are what I really enjoyed. They are pictures of animals doing human things. The pictures are also cluttered with all types of things in movement that keep wandering eyes looking everywhere. Great story to have for kids that love great pictures.
August 10, 2024
I don't know why the title would ever be "The Friendly Book"; it's just a book about the narrator liking random things: cars, trains, stars, snow, dogs, boats, whistles, and people. Its strength is in the chaotic illustrations by Garth Williams; there's a lot going on. The sometimes-rhyming text by Margaret Wise Brown isn't too good.
July 11, 2024
It's a plot free info dump on things the unnamed narrator likes. Are these things Margaret Wise Brown liked or things someone close to her liked? Or someone she knew? Who knows!
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2024/com...
https://pussreboots.com/blog/2024/com...
August 9, 2016
Margaret Wise Brown, The Friendly Book (Golden Press, 1954)
The farther I get outside the Goodnight Moon circle of Margaret Wise Brown books, the more I understand that saying about lightning never striking twice. The Friendly Book is the weakest book the Brown corpus we've encountered so far. It seems to be an attempt at poetry. To Brown's credit, the structure of most of the pieces of the book is the same, though that structure is very flawed; the first half of each poem (each of which is title “I Like _____”, with a different fitb for each) is a simple list of things, while the second is a quatrain that actually approaches verse. Had the whole book resembled those second halves, this might at least be half-decent. On the other hand, it isn't, and it isn't, respectively. **
The farther I get outside the Goodnight Moon circle of Margaret Wise Brown books, the more I understand that saying about lightning never striking twice. The Friendly Book is the weakest book the Brown corpus we've encountered so far. It seems to be an attempt at poetry. To Brown's credit, the structure of most of the pieces of the book is the same, though that structure is very flawed; the first half of each poem (each of which is title “I Like _____”, with a different fitb for each) is a simple list of things, while the second is a quatrain that actually approaches verse. Had the whole book resembled those second halves, this might at least be half-decent. On the other hand, it isn't, and it isn't, respectively. **
February 16, 2016
I have loved this book for over 50 years, and could recite most of it by heart! And, it's so fun to stop at each page and "watch" all of the activity going on in each illustration! Love Garth Williams! Over the years, I must have lost my copy....or maybe it fell apart from so much love....but purchased a new copy recently. When I read it, it's like visiting old friends!
I love this book so much, that I wrote sort of a silly "homage" to Margaret Wise Brown in the style of "The Friendly Book!" For about 50 years I have had a "thing" for anything shoe related, so my story is called "I Like Shoes!" If you're interested, let me know and I'll post it! (I am an elementary school librarian!)
I love this book so much, that I wrote sort of a silly "homage" to Margaret Wise Brown in the style of "The Friendly Book!" For about 50 years I have had a "thing" for anything shoe related, so my story is called "I Like Shoes!" If you're interested, let me know and I'll post it! (I am an elementary school librarian!)
November 10, 2019
I like Brown's most popular work, but I'm just not a big fan of a lot of her other stuff. I can see how this book would appeal to children, but I find a lot of her language actually strangely awkward in an attempt to be poetic.
The illustrations remind of Where's Waldo -- the light lines and detail, but there is a charming fantastical, old-fashioned world. I'm still not really a fan, though.
The illustrations remind of Where's Waldo -- the light lines and detail, but there is a charming fantastical, old-fashioned world. I'm still not really a fan, though.
August 4, 2014
People, boats, dogs, fish, snow, stars, even trains among other things that a child likes. Good starter book for the young reader as it shows how one thing can still be many different things, and yet be the same thing.
January 20, 2013
This book was all about liking a lot of things. It would be good to introduce diversity to small students.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews