Kindness and Siblings
After a long weekend in our house, I've been thinking a lot about sibling kindness (what I like to think of as the reverse side of the more popular term "sibling rivalry") and how to encourage it. As usual in our house, I turn first to books with good sibling relationships.
There are many well known series dealing with sibling issues - such as the Berenstain Bears books, some of Mercer Mayer's Little Critter books, and Marc Brown's Arthur and D.W. books. There are also many good books about welcoming a new baby into your home. It's harder to find books that are specifically about brothers and sisters getting along a few years in!
One that we have liked is What Brothers Do Best/ What Sisters Do Best by Laura Numeroff. Read from one end, this shows all the wonderful things sisters can do, and when flipped over gives the same from the brother perspective. The book shows a variety of sibling pairs, and is a delightful look at the positive parts of sibling relationships.
While I have yet to find a great book to recommend about the relationship between brothers (or a brother and sister) beyond babyhood and appropriate for the toddler/preK/K audience, I can recommend two books about sisters. Sisters, by David McPhail, is a classic book about two sisters who don't always get along, but who do always love each other. Booklist calls this one "An exuberant celebration of sisterhood."
Another, more recently published take on the same theme is Big Sister, Little Sister by Leuyen Pham. In this book, the little sister is "always catching up," but does appreciate the advantages of having a big sister to help her out, and the loving bond between them is clear.
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