Friends

What makes a camel friends with a Viet­namese pig? Or a wild polar bear with a sled dog? In a young preschool book, Cather­ine Thimmesh makes us won­der at the truth and mys­tery of unlike­ly ani­mal friend­ships. Because the sto­ries behind these friend­ships are true, not con­trived, they not only give read­ers insight into ani­mals, but chal­lenge pre­con­ceived notions about com­pata­bil­i­ty. With­out becom­ing didac­tic or laden with mes­sage, this book express­es tol­er­ance of dif­fer­ences and makes us look the kind­ness of animals—and humans—a lit­tle differently. 

Because they were there at just the right time, pho­tog­ra­phers in Siberia, India, Africa, the U.S., Chi­na, Eng­land, Ger­many and Japan were able to cap­ture the truth and mys­tery of these exist­ing friendships.