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By Amy Mendenhall

It's a new school year, and with new changes comes a new challenge for kids - making new friends. For ways to help your children navigate this path is "Making Friends" by Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer (Lifelong Books, $13.)

The author takes a look at how friendship works developmentally for children of different ages, from young infants up to tweenagers. She addresses how friendships change during elementary school, what children look for in a friend and why they seek out the ones they do, how girls and boys' friendships are different, and most importantly, what parents can do when they notice problems. The author also makes the distinction between different types of friends, ranging from therapeutic friends to "bad" friends, and even the benefits of imaginary friends and cyber friends.

The book also shows what to do in the face of bullying, how to help children overcome shyness, and what to do about a possessive friend.

This is a good book to keep on hand from elementary school on up, in case questions should arise, especially during those trying middle school years. It's a good reference guide for parents.

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Reading for pleasure may becoming a lost art, but Diane Frankenstein aims to change that with her book, "Reading Together: Everything You Need to Know to Raise a Child that Loves to Read" (Perigee, $15.)

Frankenstein starts her book with a simple thought in how to encourage reading: "Help children find an appropriate book" and "talk with them about the story" which brings "children who connect with stories and love the stories they read." She begins by showing parents how to help children love what they read by finding the right book at the right time (and for parents not to stress so much about whether the book is challenging or not), helping them to find the hook and that if it doesn't it is acceptable to find a different book, don't interrupt the story with explanations or turn the book into a vocabulary lesson, and much more, but especially to keep the fun in reading the story.

She then shows parents the how to conversationally read to their children by making comments and asking questions to help the children see the plotline, find the content in the story, and to see beyond the plotline and to make personal connections to a story.

The rest of the book is made up of 101 Story Pages of books ranging from Pre-K to the sixth grade reading level. Each page has questions to ask children about the specific book and questions that make the story personal. There are also sections that are conversation starters for any story. Each page has a "souvenir" a final idea to remember from the story and recommendations of what book to read next. Each book is given a synopsis, so parents can find a book their child would be intersted in as well as a list of subjects. The book also has an index page of the books included broken down by picture books, grades 2-5 and grades 4-6. The book pages also display the cover for recognizability and has a "read together" age range as well as a "read alone" one.

For an adult who wants to get their kids reading more and wants to be able to test their comprehension skill, be sure to check out this very informative and helpful book.

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