Once upon a time, which was a couple of weeks ago, Olive’s helper visited The Clover School, a Montessori school in Toronto . In a Montessori classroom, children learn by exploring, choosing their activities, and discovering the world at their own gentle pace, with teachers guiding rather than directing.

It was a bright Toronto morning, the kind where winter light slips quietly through tall classroom windows and settles softly on the carpet. Olive’s helper spent the morning walking from classroom to classroom, reading to five different groups of children of different ages. In each room, no one stayed in their chairs. The children gathered on a soft carpet right beside her, settling in close as the pages began to turn.

Olive’s helper brought along Friendly’s, a children’s picture book about friendship and belonging.

Soon, the room filled with the little garden café from Friendly’s and its unusual guests. Rags the cat, who runs the café with quiet patience. Sparky the rat, who was a little unsure at first. A place where different animals wander in, not knowing what to expect and slowly discover that perhaps they belong there after all.

As Dainius Šukys’s illustrations appeared, the children leaned closer. Fingers pointed, and whispers passed from one child to another as they noticed tiny details in the pictures.

“I like that one,” someone said quietly.
“He’s funny!” said someone else.

And then came the most serious question of the morning.

“What’s your name?”

Olive’s helper laughed, the teachers laughed, and the children laughed. Moments like that are the real magic of a classroom read-aloud.

We can’t wait to visit the children again with Olive’s new picture book, A Strange Sound, coming soon, just in time for Mother’s Day.

In the meantime, to keep the adventures going, we created a free 7-page Friendly’s Activity Pack for children, filled with gentle puzzles, drawing prompts, and little discoveries.

You can download it here: https://olivegreenbooks.com/fun/fun-learning/

Stories travel best when children sit close enough to see every page