Description The new work from Ms. Lee Hyun-a, author of the bestseller "Words That Comfort Feelings" For 10 years running, the #1 worry among elementary students has been "friendships." Is there really no way to protect both a precious friendship and my own heart? Children who are just beginning their social lives as elementary students encounter new types of friends they've never dealt with before, along with countless conflicts among peers. "Why am I always the one left out?" "If my best friend bullies me, shouldn't I just grin and bear it so I don't end up alone?" "I clearly told them to stop, so why do they tease me even more?" As a longtime "heart doctor" listening to children's worries in the classroom, Ms. Lee Hyun-a noticed that the most urgent and painful concern for today's children is the difficulty of friendship. She met children who felt that arguing with a friend was the scariest thing in the world, whose hearts crumbled over the smallest misunderstandings between friends, and who especially suffered in silence, not knowing how to handle it when a friend hurt or bullied them. This led her to ask: "How can these children protect their hearts without getting hurt, while still building healthy friendships?" "How to Wisely Protect Myself When a Friend Hurts Me" is the culmination of the observation, contemplation, and research that grew out of this question she held as a teacher. Want to build healthy friendships? Practice, make mistakes, and move forward little by little! The author first turned 10 common problem situations in friendships into stories. She then arranged text and illustrations like scenes from a picture book, so that anyone can easily immerse themselves in and relate to these situations. The main characters in these 10 stories are upset because of their friends, yet they suffer in silence because they don't want to ruin the friendship. They're afraid that if they honestly tell their friend how they feel, the friend might stop playing with them, get upset, or grow distant. But simply enduring in silence or running away never actually solves the problem. Once readers have fully related to each problem situation, it's time to try out the following pages, "Try This" and "Take One More Step." These include setting boundaries with a friend who doesn't respect them, refusing requests they don't want to fulfill, and reaching out to a new friend instead of sticking with a best friend who bullies them. After seeing how 10 different characters, each the star of their own story, overcome their own friendship struggles, readers come to understand what "smart" really means in this book. It's not the kind of smart that gets a perfect test score or solves a hard math problem — true smartness is "the strength to protect your own heart while wisely navigating friendships." Of course, this strength doesn't appear on its own. As the book shows, the only way forward is to face challenges, make mistakes, and try again with courage — so that both you and your friends can learn and grow together, little by little. One important feature of this book is that the children in it are drawn as animals rather than people. This is meant to minimize the gender- and appearance-related stereotypes that often appear when depicting children's relationships — avoiding clichés like portraying the child who bullies others as a big boy, or the child who spreads rumors as a prim and proper girl. Another key feature is that the characters cannot be neatly divided into "good" and "bad." Just as a child who is excluded by a close friend in the book also spreads false rumors and acts as an aggressor in another group, peer conflicts among children are difficult to understand through a simple black-and-white lens of good versus evil. Becoming a steady support for children so that friendship struggles can become opportunities for growth Many parents ask the author whether they should be teaching their children how to defend themselves, worried that their child might get hurt in friendships. Seeing a child struggle in a friendship can feel heartbreaking, and parents sometimes worry it might leave too deep a wound. But considering that children will continue to grow through countless relationships in the future, caregivers' attitudes need to change too, when it comes to friendship...