Do You Want to Be My Friend? was published by Thomas Y. Crowell in 1971, two years after The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The book is nearly wordless — only the title phrase appears, on the first page — and the story is told entirely through pictures, making it accessible to pre-literate children and to children who speak any language.
A small gray mouse approaches a series of animals, each time asking (silently) the question of the title. On each page, only the tail of the next animal is visible at the right edge, and the child must guess what animal will appear on the following page. The mouse encounters a horse, a crocodile, a lion, a hippo, a seal, a monkey, a peacock, a fox, a kangaroo, and a snake before finally finding another mouse who is willing to be a friend.
The book works as a guessing game, a visual narrative, and an emotional story simultaneously. The guessing game (what animal has that tail?) engages children’s pattern recognition and builds anticipation. The visual narrative (the mouse’s journey across different landscapes) tells a story without words. And the emotional arc (rejection, persistence, eventual acceptance) mirrors every child’s experience of trying to make friends.
Carle’s collage illustrations are spare and elegant — the animals are reduced to their essential shapes and colors, with the tails serving as graphic clues that children can decode. The book demonstrates that a picture book can function as a game, a puzzle, and a story simultaneously.
Collecting Do You Want to Be My Friend?
First edition (Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1971): Pictorial boards.
Market values:
- First edition, fine: $60–$200
- Later editions: $5–$10