The Boys

The Boys is a fantastic tale of four close friends - Tan, Rey, Nattie and Bobby. The story follows the four boys, each with their own individual personality and interest, from their early childhood where they would spend their time playing together at the beach. The beach was their special place where they would play, learn, spend their days and build their friendship.

One sad spring day, the growing boys return to the beach to discover it has changed. The tides and storms have altered the area by shifting sand and revealing hidden rocks. Everything is different. Similarly, these growing boys are discovering that, as they grow older, life was becoming different. Teamwork was becoming competitive, new relationships were forming and their time was being spent entertaining and being with others. And just as the sea swept away their familiar memories, they began to feel that alone, they too were swept out to sea.

Learning that talking and listening is key to facing problems, the close knit boys resolved their differences and began rebuilding their friendship, making it stronger than ever. The strong, understanding friendship now meant that even though they had their own, individual lives, they always had each other for support when it was needed. And just like the waves returning to the shore, the friends knew their friendship would always bring them back together.

The Boys provides a great platform for learning from. Not only does the story perfectly demonstrate friendships and the struggles of maintaining them as you grow older, but also through the illustrations it shows many other social and multicultural topics. For example; the boys are all of different race and where a wedding is illustrated it is a same sex ceremony.

This truly is a must-have text for any classroom. The story is meaningful and relevant to all children and a great teaching tool for why friendships are important. It will also begin a great discussion on the different types of friendships with just boys, just girls, and a combination of boys and girls. As one little girl said.. This is four boys but is not for boys!

Picture book / Reviewed by Maria Faithorn, teacher

Suggested Reading Age 5+