A Friend For Henry By Jenn Bailey And Illustrated By Mika Song

The original text A Friend for Henry, written by Jenn Bailey and illustrated by Mika Song, is a book that displays the challenges children face when finding the perfect friend. At the beginning, Henry walks into the class looking for a friend. He tries to make friends with his teacher, the class fish, and some of his peers, but everybody he tried to befriend did not meet his definition of a friend. Just when his hope of finding a friend felt small, he stumbled across the kind and well-mannered Katie. They talked and played and eventually, Katie became Henry’s perfect friend. Throughout A Friend for Henry many ethnicities are shown, making the book a contender for the Ezra Jack Keats Award. The Ezra Jack Keats Award is the only award that celebrates

Bailey does an excellent job at exploring the strength of community throughout A Friend for Henry by contrasting Henry’s happiness before and after building a bond with Katie. Before building community with Katie, Henry was often frustrated by those around him as all he wanted was a friend that was thankful and mannered. His frustration towards his peers peaked when he shouted, “A friend listens!” after Samuel stole his rug at reading time. The frustration here shows that a lack of community makes his time in school more difficult than it has to be. Luckily, Henry meets Katie and can explore the strength of community. Only after Henry meets Katie does Henry smile. Prior to meeting her he was always drawn with a frown or displeased face, but once Katie and Henry start becoming friends, he is able to smile and enjoy his time at school. The contrast between Henry’s displeasure and frustration seen before meeting Katie, and his more joyful depiction afterwards shows the strength community and friendships bring as it finds the light in

In Classroom Six, a variety of ethnicities are displayed: Henry is of Asian heritage, Mrs. Magoon, Jayden, and Katie appear to be of African American descent, and Vivianne, Samuel, and Riley look to be European or American. While the story’s ability to reflect the multicultural nature of the world may seem limited as it is only reflected in the illustrations, the fact diversity is only addressed with the illustrations magnifies the stories reflection of the diverse world. By not explicitly pointing out how diverse the class was, Bailey and Song have made a world in which race or ethnicity are not an issue. The author and illustrator imply the world is diverse and leave it up to the reader to notice diversity rather than handing it to them. Therefore, A Friend for Henry reflects the multicultural nature of the world in a way that is to be noticed rather than