“Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.” – Charles R. Swindoll.

 Sometimes a good friend is hard to find, but here are some nonfiction books to remind us that the friend we are looking for can often be found in the most surprising places.

For the youngest readers:

Suryia & Roscoe: the True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by Bhagavan “Doc” Antle with Thea Feldman, photographs by Barry Bland (Henry Holt, 2011)  Suryia the orangutan and Roscoe the dog are best friends at a wildlife preserve in South Carolina. The photographs of these two swimming together in the pool or cuddling are irresistibly cute!

For the transitional readers:

 Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain with illustrations by Larry Day (Penguin, 2011)  Thomas Jefferson and John Adams may have been complete opposites, but they were once friends who fought together for America’s independence. Differing political beliefs on how the new government should be run turned the friends into enemies. It took more than twenty years for the two great men to put politics aside in favor of friendship. Wonderful lessons for us even today!

For the older readers:

Dogs On Duty: Soldiers’ Best Friends on the Battlefield and Beyond by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (Walker & Co., 2012) The photographs of these heroic dogs working side by side with soldiers are inspirational. Cairo, a Belgian Malinois, jumps from an airplane along side his Navy SEAL team member.  Other dogs help find missing soldiers, act as messengers, or protect troops as sentries. This book is full of fantastic information about soldiers’ best friends, from training as puppies to serving our country as MWDs (Military Working Dogs).