Title: The Besties Make A Splash

Author: Felice Arena and Tom Jellett

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Puffin

Published: 28^th April 2020

Format: Paperback

Pages: 80

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: From the author and illustrator of the popular Sporty Kids books comes an exciting new beginner-reader series that celebrates the everyday adventures – at school, at home, in the backyard, even in the living room! A funny, sweet series about kids being kids, where imagination and play rule!

Oliver and Ruby have been besties forever . . .
Oliver and Ruby love going to the beach – swimming in the surf, wading in the rockpools and eating ice-cream! And it gets even better when their funny friend Zac and the coolest girl in school turn up. But what if your bestie is having more fun with someone else?

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Another really great early reader’s book for kids aged five to eight years old, the next book in The Besties series delivers a fun, fast-paced and quirky story for kids. Again, it displays diversity – mainly racial and gender at this stage, to show that friendship can cross many kinds of boundaries.

Oliver and Ruby always have fun together, and in this installment, they head to the beach to swim together in the rock pools when Zac and Isabella show up – Zac splashes with Ruby, and Isabella and Oliver go for a walk. Yet Zac and Isabella soon find that they’re not having that much fun with Ruby and Oliver. Ruby and Oliver don’t enjoy the ways Zac and Isabella have fun. So will they realise that they really do have more fun with each other than other people?

This book is a great story about friendship and trying new things and it also says it is okay to go back to what you like, and what you know if you don’t enjoy the new thing. It is about the power of friendship and what it means to know who your friends are and the sharing of interests that can bring friends together.

It is a fun book, aimed at early readers, and might even be a bit more of a challenge for those seeking a story with a little more to the story, yet still like shorter chapters and simple vocabuluary.

Another great book for early readers to enjoy and learn how to read with.