THE LEOPARD AND THE COW-U/FRIENDSHIPS/KI

Unlikely Friendships for Kids: The Leopard & the Cow and Four Other Stories of Animal Friendships by Jennifer S. Holland. Hardback, 48 pages. Unlikely Friendships is a phenomenon. It’s a runaway New York Times bestseller with more than 260,000 copies in print in less than half a year; a book with its compelling message of hope and friendship and differences overcome. Temple Grandin called it “. . . amazing. It shows the power of friendship.” Now Unlikely Friendships is rewritten for younger readers: Unlikely Friendships for Kids, a series of hardcover chapter books for children, ages seven and up. Here are three collections each with five of the clearest, most interesting stories from the original book, like the monkey and the dove or the leopard and the cow. Chapter books give young readers a strong sense of accomplishment, and these heartwarming animal stories, with their incredible photographs and inexplicable mysteries of attraction, their focus on friendship, love, and the ways that creatures of all different species can find common bonds of affection, will keep kids turning the pages to find out about the unusual ways animals help each other and discover the love of new friends.