Hey, it's Reading with Rella B. I just have one question.
Are you ready?
Are you ready to come along with me?
Are you ready to imagine with Rella B?
Hey there, little readers.
Welcome to Reading with Reli B, the podcast where stories come to life.
Each episode we meet amazing authors who share their wonderful books with us, chat about their stories and guess what?
We even play a fun riddle game to find out what we're going to be reading next.
Oh, and if you haven't already gotten your free printable activity for this episode, make sure you check out the description down below to go ahead and print it out.
So let's go ahead and get cozy, open your ears and let your imagination run wild.
Let's find out what we're reading.
I'm going to give you three hints and then a couple seconds to guess.
Are you ready?
Hint number one, I'm always here when you need me.
Hint number two, we laugh, play, and have so much fun together.
Hint number three I'm normally not in your family, but sometimes I'm so close to you that you consider me family.
Do you know what I am?
Good job.
If you guessed a friend, then you would be correct.
And the reason that our riddle was a friend today is because we are going to be having a fun story about making friends.
So let's go ahead and invite our author friend out.
Oh my goodness, friends.
I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I wish that I had more friends.
And sometimes I wonder, how do I make a new friend?
Sometimes that can be a little bit scary and it makes me nervous to meet new people.
So do you ever deal with that?
I actually have an amazing author friend named Stephanie that's going to come and share a book with us.
That's about making friends.
Let's go ahead and welcome her.
Hi, Stephanie.
How are you?
Hi, Renaphi.
I'm good.
How about you?
I'm great.
Thank you so much for sharing your book with us today.
I'd love to know more about what it's called and what the main characters look like.
The main character is actually a boy and there's no name for the main character.
So whoever reading this book can be the main character.
So you can actually write your name on it.
Oh, wow.
So the main character could be... Anybody.
Yeah, anybody.
It could be me.
That's right.
That is so awesome.
And then what is your book called?
My book is called What is a Friend and How Do I Possibly Get One?
Okay, that is so important.
And I feel like we're going to learn so much from this book.
So what made you want to write this book?
That's a long story because I am a teacher, right?
When I need to observe my students at school, I could always find some kids who are wandering alone on the playgrounds with no one to play with.
So I really felt heartbroken when I saw this.
I was a shy kid before when I was little too.
So I know how it feels like when you are left out.
I think if children don't develop their friendship skills by the age of around nine years old, So it will be quite difficult for them to form friendship in higher grades.
So it's really, really important that we can help them to build a skill, the friendship skills.
That's why we wrote this book, to help them.
Wow, that is so important.
I'm excited to hear your book.
Thank you.
Yes.
What is a friend and how do I possibly make one?
Written by Stephanie Chan and illustrated by Luke Graha.
So the first part of the story is...
So because remember we mentioned about anybody is reading this book can be the main character.
So here we have I am blank.
So you can fill out how many years old and also I am in grade, like what grade you are in and what school you are in.
So, let's start.
At recess, I don't have any friends to play with.
I wander around, feeling upset, lonely and dumb.
Today, Connor passes by and says hi.
I put down my hat and don't want to reply.
Then, Sam passes by and says hi.
I look away because I am shy.
On my way home, I meet the friendly school bus driver.
The school bus driver asks me, Why are you so upset?
I don't have any friends, I say, and I don't know how to make one yet.
The school bus driver says, greeting is the first step.
Only when you greet others do they think you are approachable and friendship will be possible.
The next morning, I greet everyone I meet.
Everyone greets me back.
I feel good from head to feet.
Good morning, Connor.
How are you, Sam?
At recess time, I'm waiting and waiting, but no one plays with me.
Why?
This is frustrating.
On my way home, I meet a friendly school librarian.
The librarian asked me, why are you so upset?
I don't have any friends, I say, even though I greeted everyone I met.
The librarian smiles.
Greeting makes you approachable and friendly, but you also need to show empathy.
That means you understand and share how others feel.
I get it.
When others are happy, I feel happy for them.
When others are sad, I feel the same, I say.
The next day, I greet everyone and try empathy.
Connor complains about the math homework.
There is so much homework.
I don't have time to play video games.
I feel the same, and I wish I could be free all day.
Then Sam tells us that she has passed her piano level exam.
I paused.
Congratulations, I am happy for you, Sam.
At recess, I am waiting and waiting, but no one plays with me.
Why?
This is frustrating.
On my way home, I meet the friendly courier.
The courier asks me, why are you so upset?
I try greeting and empathy.
I say, but I'm still lonely.
The courier smiles.
Greeting makes you friendly and empathy makes you kind.
Next, you will need to find out common interests so that you know each other better.
That means I should ask them what they do and don't like, so that we know what we can do together.
I asked
The Korean nods.
So the next day, I talked to Connor and Sam.
I find out Connor and I both like playing video games, tag, and basketball.
Sam and I both like playing cards, tag, and hanging out in the mall.
At recess, I am waiting and waiting.
But still, no one plays with me.
Why?
This is frustrating.
On my way home, I meet a friendly firefighter next door.
The firefighter asks me, why are you so upset?
Even if I got to know the common interest, I say.
I still don't have any friends to play with at recess, the firefighter says.
After you find common interests, why don't you invite them to play something you both like at recess?
Since they think you are friendly and kind, they are likely to say yes.
Great idea, I exclaimed.
But what if they say no to me?
I'm worried.
Remember, you can try the problem-solving map, the firefighter says.
There is a way to solve the problem in a good way, perhaps.
If they say no, I can invite another, maybe Emily or another friend, I say.
I like that idea.
I'm sure you will find a friend and play together.
The firefighter laughs.
The next day, I invite Connor and Sam to play tag at recess.
Do you want to play tag with me?
They both say yes.
We have a lot of fun playing together.
It's a great success.
That night, I am too excited to fall asleep.
I think making a friend is like planting a seed, just like seeds need soil, water and sunshine.
We need greetings, empathy, fighting common interests, making an invitation, and more.
Without any of them, friendships won't grow or shine.
The end.
We have a couple of empathy practice at the end of the book, too.
So you are welcome to buy the whole book and then you can get more practice.
Oh, wow.
So if we wanted to go buy the book and see the beautiful illustrations, where would we go?
You can go to our website, behaviorsign.com.
Or you can go to Amazon to find the book, What is a Friend?
And How Do I Possibly Make One? under Stephanie Chan.
Okay, wonderful.
I did have a couple of questions because you said that you were shy when you were younger.
What helped you when you were growing up?
That's a really good question.
When I was little, there was no one teaching me how to make friends.
And I was figuring out all by myself, but it took like a lot of years many, many years to figure out.
Then I eventually get out of my comfort zone.
That's why I chose to study to become a teacher.
And then I actually developed this friendship curriculum to help children to develop friendships one by one.
And eventually in this whole series.
After they read each book in this series, they will learn different friendship skills, not just like get out of the comfort zone to say hi, greet others, make friends, but also how to solve conflicts and how to maintain friendship and when we lose a friend and how to deal with that cope with that as well.
So it's like a whole curriculum to handle friendships.
Wow, that is so important because I know that I have lost some friends and that can be really hard to deal with.
Yeah, right.
So even when I was young, when my best friend left me and I actually was so sad and I didn't know how to deal with that,
Okay, so do you also have books that deal with that too?
I know you have more books.
So do you have one specifically that deals with losing friendships?
Yeah, that will be coming out very soon.
But in this whole series, there will be 14 books.
And now we are working on the third book.
And we already published two books, book one and book two.
And then we are working on book three right now.
And there will be a lot coming out.
So that totally 14 of them.
Wow, that is amazing.
Well, thank you so much for sharing that with us.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with us today?
I think the very important thing is after reading the books.
It's very important to practice the skills.
There are some social situations at the end of the books for children to practice with their parents and then they can improve their skills.
No, that is so amazing that you provide those opportunities for you to learn, grow and practice in your books.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Stephanie.
You're welcome.
I'm so happy to have this opportunity to talk to you and read the book.
Well, thank you.
I hope you have a great day.
Bye.
Bye.
Wow, wasn't that an amazing story?
I'm so happy that we were able to listen to that today.
If you loved it too, guess what?
You can actually grab a copy of it by checking the description down below.
And up!
You know what time it is.
It's time to find out our co-creators.
Show us co-creators in the app.
Tell me, tell me.
Tap, tap, tap.
Hello, smartphone.
Tell us today.
Did all our friends have fun and play?
I hear my friends.
John, Julie, Hailey, and Sarah had fun today.
Won't you join me another day?
Thank you so much for joining me on Reading with Willoughby.
I hope you enjoyed this story time just as much as I did.
And if you like to watch YouTube videos and have a more visual experience, where we also stretch and do riddles, definitely make sure that you check out Reading with Rella B on YouTube.
I'm so excited and I hope that you'll see us there too.
And if you would like to become a co-creator, you can go to the Want to Participate tab on relabbookscom.
So I hope that I can shout out your name soon and we'll see you next time.
Toodles!
