THE BUDDY BENCH

When new students or shy children struggle to make friends, the Buddy Bench might be a solution.

When all but one child, the narrator, decide to stay inside for recess after a surprise Texas snowstorm, the unnamed, round-headed kid heads outside and meets Shae. She’s new to the school and sitting on the playground Buddy Bench, signaling that she hopes to find a friend. Luckily, Shae’s just moved from a place with lots of snow and, after giggling at the narrator’s unrealistic suggestions (conveyed in labored rhyme), proves to have lots of ideas about how to enjoy a snowy recess. Soon, the two borrow trays from the lunchroom and use them to fly down the mountains of snow. When recess is over, the narrator heads back to class happy in the knowledge of a new friend and that new friends can have great new ideas. Brightly colored cartoon illustrations show children of many ethnicities (the narrator presents white, and Shae is a girl of color) and create an action-packed snow story, but it is primarily a vehicle for introducing the concept of a Buddy Bench. Final pages contain information about the project’s history, what a Buddy Bench can look like, ways to use the bench, and classroom discussion questions.

A handy classroom text to discuss inclusion and introduce the Buddy Bench concept.