Even Better Than Sprinkles: A Story About Best Friends

by Linda Skeers, Heather Fox (illustrator)

When you find someone who agrees to be the back end of a unicorn costume, who names their goldfish after you, and is always willing to be the dragon when you play knights and dragons, you’ve found a best friend.

Having a best friend is the greatest feeling ever. But it’s terrible when something happens to break up that friendship. Now it feels like you are being hugged by a porcupine. Now it’s time to figure out how to repair a broken friendship. A good place to start is a homemade card with glitter everywhere and a special cupcake with lots of sprinkles. When you add an apology, it’s the best way back to being best friends.
This funny and sweet story is a guide to celebrating and caring for your besties even when you don't seem to agree.

Genres: Picture Books, Friendship, Childrens, Fiction, Humor

32 pages, Hardcover

Published June 25, 2024

Reviews

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central

Two little girls are best friends... the kind of friends who will always let you be the knight while they are the dragon, will put up with your bad singing, and even name their guppies after you. The two have an excellent time until one girl blows out the other's birthday candles, and they have the kind of fight that devolves into never speaking to each other again. But fighting with a friend is lonely, and even though the girl who blew out the candles really wanted the wish, she knows she was in the wrong. She makes a lovely apology card with glue and lots of glitter, and delivers it to her friend, who is gracious enough to accept. After all, it's always good to have someone around to share things with, and to be the back end of your unicorn costume.

This felt like a fresh and modern picture book. I liked the bright colors of the pictures, which got a little darker when the girls were fighting, and the modern aesthetics. The message, too, was very on trend: people make mistakes, but we need to forgive them. There was a straightforwardness to the whole concept of the book that was quite refreshing.

Of course, I just noticed that both little girls are wearing skirts. Can you even buy skirts for little girls anymore? Or tiny cardigans? I don't have access to any actual tiny people.

No matter. Young readers will no doubt have had several incidents, even if they are young, of their friends making them angry, and this book would be helpful in working through that. I can see an adult asking a child to list some of the things that the child does with a best friend that makes that person indispensable to them. The idea to make an apology card (and maybe some cupcakes with sprinkles) is one to be embraced as well.

Have this book on hand for the inevitable tears that flow when friendships hit bumpy patches, along with Yoon's Be a Friend, Watson's Best Friends in the Universe, or Underwood and Ruzzier's Walter Had a Best Friend.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Friendships, even the best ones, can be challenging to navigate as this attractive picture book shows. For most of the time, the two girls featured on its pages get along swimmingly, even managing to make compromises and taking part in certain activities just because one friend enjoys them so much. But when a birthday celebration goes awry due to some blown out candles, the friendship is severed. The text describes the rift between the girls in child-friendly terms as they vow to never play with each other "for a million years and one week" (unpaged). Eventually, a glitter- and glue-filled apology note does the trick, though, and they are back where they started from. Most young readers will agree that unicorns, sprinkles, and friends are essential, as seen in the digital artwork. The girls' smiling faces and shared activities are show vividly here. The comparisons between the relationship are perfectly described here: [When it's right] "Friendship feels like being hugged by a blanket right out of the dryer" and [When it's wrong] "Then friendship feels like being hugged by a porcupine while sitting on a cactus." This one might be useful to share with a class as a read aloud that will help them deal with their own friendship dramas.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book's message confusing. At the beginning, the narrator talks about how her best friend always lets her have the best roles in their make-believe play, and the best friend's facial expressions show that she is increasingly unhappy about this. However, the book never addresses this at all, and only resolves a single bigger conflict. The book ends happily, but doesn't even address the narrator's pervasive selfishness and expectation that her best friend should always yield to her preferences.

[Kairi Ehlers]

This book is about two best friends who always hang out together and how sometimes you take the worse part of something because you really like you friend. At one of the girls parties the two get into an argument and decide they don’t like each other anymore, until they go home and realize that they don’t have as much fun by themselves. The two girls make up and decide that friendship is the most beautiful thing in the world.

This book would be really good in the classroom for helping students not only make friends but mend a friendship that might be broken up at the moment.

[Nicole Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book for my honest opinion.

       What a great book! It is rare to see a kids book in 2nd person and it works so well with the theme of this book centering around friendship and the joys and troubles that arise. The illustrations are cute, the text simple yet effective, and the message sweet. A really great book for helping kids with problems that might come up with friends and what is most important in the end.

[Louise Aamodt · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's obvious that Linda Skeers either remembers lots of details from childhood, or she just knows kids really well. She captures how ordinary daily events become joyous experiences when shared with a good friend... as well as how quickly those on-top-of-the-world feelings can slip away when we make a mistake. Her kid-friendly solution for friendship repair is one young readers will identify with and appreciate. I dare you to try not to smile when you get to the part about the guppies!

[Read Ribbet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skeers has written a great story about two best friends. The first part of the book shows how two friends play together -- even though you get a feeling that one friend has her way more than the other. But then one action goes a bit too far, and the friends have a falling out. The friend at fault does show the reader how important it is to apologize and how to try to make up for the mistake. You learn that a best friend is even better than sprinkles!

[Stephanie Bearce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This charming book combines humor with heart. Best friends will do anything for you, name your goldfish after you, wear the rear end of a unicorn costume, even forgive you when you make a big mistake.
It's a story that teaches with gentleness and laughter. The perfect book for classrooms and families who want to teach about kindness, joy, and forgiveness. I loved very single page!

[Susan Kralovansky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even Better Than Sprinkles: A Story About Best Friends by Linda Skeers is a heartwarming and delightful celebration of friendship. The story follows two best friends who share everything, from fun adventures to small acts of kindness. Skeers beautifully captures true friends' joy and special bond. Add in the charming illustrations by Heather Fox and you have a sweet, relatable storyline.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I kept waiting for a change of heart in the friend who always seems to get her way. But even after saying she's sorry, she's still always the front half of the unicorn. I feel like the theme of this book was "a friend will always let you have your way," and that's a theme for narcissists.

[Bookishrealm · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sometimes shaky look at the ups and downs of friendship.

[Manda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cute book about friendships, and the ups and downs that come with them. It's always an interesting day when you get called out by a picture book...

[Charlotte Gunnufson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is even sweeter than sprinkles and much funnier than sprinkles! And it's full of feelings that real kids experience. And the art is adorable!

[Alyssa Gudenburr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute story about friendship.

[Sonia McClintock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this story about friendship and how to navigate an argument.

[Heather Stigall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This adorable picture book about friendship has so much to love. Linda Skeers narrates from the point of view of one child who defines friendship in kid-relatable ways such as, “A friend lets you be the knight when you play knights and dragons. Even though you were the knight last time. And the time before that.” But this is more than a concept book all about what makes a friend. It conveys a story about how sometimes friends do something to cause a rift in a friendship, how that feels, and how they can repair the friendship. Heather Fox’s bright, cheerful illustrations are the perfect match for a story with sprinkles, unicorns, knights, dragons, glitter, birthday cakes, and party hats. Bonus: She includes one of my favorite elements in a picture books – a surprise cover under the dust jacket. I loved this one from cover to cover!