Books like A Friend for Henry
By Jenn Bailey
For the child who needs everything just so — and the child looking for a friend who finally gets that about them. Gentle, quiet, and hopeful, with a soft ache underneath.
A small creature tries everything to fit in with the others, but he's different and just doesn't belong — until a strange Something shows up wanting to be his friend.
A fisherman's son who spends his days alone with six cats finds a baby whale washed up after a storm and secretly brings it home to care for it — until it needs the sea again.
A Japanese girl moving into a new house spots an American girl playing in the snow outside, and though neither speaks the other's language, they team up to build a snow creature together.
A toy bear waits on a department store shelf night after night, hoping someone will love him despite his missing button — until a little girl named Lisa decides he's exactly the bear she wants.
Three children and their pets meet up, becoming fast friends who play, squabble, laugh, and make up again, the way real friendships actually go.
A young Quaker boy on old Nantucket is trailed everywhere by a seagull he finds annoying — until the bird disappears on a cold winter day and Obadiah discovers he actually misses it.
A boy named Dennis expresses everything through mime — silent, expressive, entirely his own way — until loneliness gives way to friendship when he meets a girl named Joy.
A gray cat named Charlie appears from the woods and settles into Elizabeth's and Sarah's nights, but disappears every day until a storm keeps him away and reveals his other home.
A young transgender girl shares what it's like to have a girl's brain in a boy's body, from loving pink and mermaid costumes to helping her family understand who she really is.
A plump little squirrel is wrongly accused of stealing nuts and shoved down a hollow tree trunk, where he must depend on a kind chipmunk while stuck too round to climb back out.
A picnic goes sideways when rain and stormy winds send an umbrella (and Mouse!) flying into a tree — one friend calls it good news, the other bad, all the way through.
A young llama starts his first day of preschool, and once Mama leaves for work, the new teacher, new toys, and roomful of noisy kids feel like too much all at once.
