How to Be a Friend

''Friendship is going ahead with no map on a journey full of twisty turns, loop-de-loops, dead ends and detours. Allow for ups and downs. Have some play in your steering wheel,'' writes author Sandy Gingras. With her trademark whimsy and delightful artwork, we see how precious a good friendship really is. We always knew this, of course, but Sandy Gingras gives us reason to believe again. We remember that: --Friends ''commit to some common ground but blossom into difference.'' --Friends ''bond on daring adventures'' and ''savor sweet silences.'' --Friends ''forgive with grace'' and ''know when to let things slide.'' --Friends ''know when a little nudge can be a big help'' and ''light a way home when life gets dark.'' This book is part of the author's delightful ''How To Live'' series, and embraces her themes of simplicity, appreciation, love and happiness.

Sandy Gingras is the author and illustrator of the ''How to Live'' series, including Reasons to be Happy at the Beach, How to Live at the Beach, In A House by the Sea, How to Live on an Island, and The Uh-Oh Heart. With a masters in English from Duke and another in counseling, she has also received a New Jersey State Council on the Arts grant for her poetry, and her writing has been published in anthologies, including the books Shore Stories and Four Seasons at the Shore. She owns How to Live, a retail gift store on Long Beach Island, NJ.