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Awards
- Kentucky BlueGrass Award for Best Picture Book, 2001
- Runner Up for Midland Author’s Best Children’s Fiction
- Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best in 1999
- Children’s Book of the Month Club Selection
Award Nominations
- Maryland State
- Flicker Tale
- North Carolina State
- Wyoming Buckaroo
Don’t Need Friends
Don’t Need Friends is about a cantankerous rat who decides he doesn’t need friends after his best friend moves away. I happen to like this book a lot, but a funny thing happens when my friends read it. They always say, “It sounds just like you!” Needless to say, I find this comment very disturbing. The main character is a rat, for crying out loud. What, exactly, are my friends trying to tell me?
Another curious comment I get when I tell people the title of my book is, “But Carolyn, children do need friends.” I guess they think I’ve written a how-to book on how not to have friends. I like to look at them with my best fake surprised expression and say “Oh, really? You think so?” I mean honestly, that’s what they get for saying such a silly thing.
I must mumble at times, because other people actually think I’m saying that the title is “Don’t Eat Friends,” which, now that I think of it, is a darn good idea for my next picture book.
I think the best part of this book are the illustrations. Lynn Munsinger is simply the most wonderful children’s book illustrator in the world, as far as I’m concerned. I love the expressions she draws on her characters’ faces.
Click here to listen to a podcast about Don’t Need Friends.
Awards
- Kentucky BlueGrass Award for Best Picture Book, 2001
- Runner Up for Midland Author’s Best Children’s Fiction
- Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best in 1999
- Children’s Book of the Month Club Selection
Award Nominations
- Maryland State
- Flicker Tale
- North Carolina State
- Wyoming Buckaroo
★ “Crimi and Munsinger are in perfect sync in this slyly funny and deeply touching story. . . Crimi’s tight, deft prose mines Dog and Rat’s petulance for all its comedy and poignancy, while Munsinger offers up yet another memorable cast of all-too-human animals.” —Publisher’s Weekly, November 8, 1999, Starred Review
“In a story tailor-made for Oscar the Grouch fans, Rat gives up on friendship after his best friend, Possum, moves to another junkyard: “Don’t need friends, don’t need ’em at all.” The other junkyard animals try to exchange pleasantries with Rat, but he’s rude to everyone, including the new guy, Dog. . .soon the two are friends, a transformation humorously and believable conveyed in a fine melding of art and text. The book neatly avoids sentimentality and closes with Rat’s nifty new credo: ‘Don’t need many friends. . .Just need one.” —Horn Book, November/December, 1999
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Activities
Junkyard Town: create a town like the one Lynn Munsinger drew using boxes, plastic bottles, cardboard tubes and other recyclable items. Don’t forget houses for Rat and Dog!
Acrostic Poem: have students write the word FRIEND vertically down the page. Then ask them to write a new line about friendship with each letter of the word.
Build a Sandwich: Rat and Dog are brought together by a foot long salami sandwich. Create your own sandwich athome or in the classroom with all the fixings.
Experiment with Watercolor: Lynn Munsinger uses watercolors to create her wonderful illustrations. Try experimenting with them by wetting a piece of watercolor paper, then applying the watercolor paint onto the wet paper for a soft, blurry effect.
Related Books
- Wanted: Best Friend, by A.M. Monson, illustrations by Lynn Munsinger.
- Frog and Toad are Friends, written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel.
- Pumpkin Soup, by Helen Cooper