What if one picture book could help your students build friendship, before they’ve even learned everyone’s name?
The first weeks of school are about creating a place where every child feels seen, valued, connected, and safe enough to be themselves.
Positive psychology reminds us that happiness is something we can teach. Like literacy itself, the skills behind happiness are learnable, and one of the simplest ways to teach them is through a carefully chosen read-aloud. When we pair great stories with meaningful conversations about character strengths, literacy becomes a path to belonging. That’s why Nobody Hugs a Cactus by Carter Goodrich deserves a spot among your first read-alouds of the year.
In Nobody Hugs a Cactus, Hank the cactus likes things exactly the way they are. He doesn’t want company. He certainly doesn’t want hugs. And he makes sure everyone knows it. At first, students laugh at Hank’s prickly personality. But as the story unfolds, they start to notice that Hank isn’t simply grumpy. He’s protecting himself by keeping everyone else at a distance. Sound familiar?
Teach Nobody Hugs a Cactus
Every back-to-school season, students walk into our classrooms carrying invisible stories: excitement, anxiety, hope, loneliness. Like Hank, some of them keep others at arm’s length until they feel safe. Nobody Hugs a Cactus reminds students that friendship grows from a willingness to change, to be kind, and to let someone in.
Just as Swimmy invites students to notice teamwork and perspective, and Ish invites them to notice creativity, Hank’s story introduces three strengths that are foundational to a joyful classroom community: forgiveness, humility, and gratitude.
As you read, invite students to notice these three strengths as they quietly show up in the story.
Forgiveness: Every classroom has its share of misunderstandings. Someone gets left out. Someone says the wrong thing. Forgiveness teaches students that healthy friendships are defined by the willingness to offer a second chance. It helps children repair relationships instead of walking away from them.
Ask: Have you ever been forgiven? How does forgiveness make a friendship stronger?
Humility Hank’s biggest turning point comes when he realizes he can’t do life alone. Humility is about recognizing that everyone needs someone. Through Hank, students see that saying “I was wrong,” asking for help, or simply accepting kindness are signs of strength, not weakness.
Ask: What is one time you asked someone for help? How did it feel?
Gratitude: By the end of the story, Hank finally notices what had been there all along: the kindness of the friends around him. Gratitude shifts our attention from what we lack to what we already have. Invite students to close each day by naming one classmate who helped them, welcomed them, or made them smile. Gratitude has a way of multiplying kindness.
Ask: Who is someone that made your day better this week?
Before you open the book, try telling students:
“Today we’re going to read with a different lens. As we listen, let’s look for three strengths that help people build friendship and happiness: forgiveness, humility, and gratitude.” Then pause naturally as you read.
“I wonder why Hank is acting this way?” “What would forgiveness look like here?” “How does gratitude change the way Hank sees everyone around him?” With these small pauses, students will start to see themselves inside it. They start building the language of character strengths, spotting those strengths in each other, and carrying them into how they treat their classmates. Over time, these conversations can build belonging.
Students may not remember every routine we teach in school. But they will remember how the classroom made them feel. The first months of school can shape classroom culture. Every read-aloud we choose is a chance to help students practice forgiveness, humility, gratitude, and the countless other strengths that help a classroom, and every child in it, flourish.
