Good friendship book questions can be answered in one line and still reveal something you didn't know about the other person. A friendship book (the German Freundebuch, much like a slam book) is a book that friends fill in, one page each. Here are 100 questions for it, sorted by occasion: the classics, questions for children, funny and creative ones, questions for adults and for groups such as teams, school classes and colleagues. Pick a few from each group and every page will turn out different.
What makes a good friendship book question?
It's short, open and kind. Open means a yes or no won't settle it. Kind means nobody has to reveal anything they'd rather keep to themselves, and nobody is shown up when everyone reads the book later.
Mix short questions that take one word to answer with a few longer ones that get a full sentence. The short ones make the page lively, the long ones make it personal.
Typical friendship book questions: the classics
Almost everyone knows these questions from their own friendship book. They belong in it because they're the ones that surprise you most when you reread them years later.
- What's your name, and what do your friends call you?
- When is your birthday?
- What's your favourite colour?
- What do you like eating most?
- Which animal do you like best?
- What do you like doing most in your free time?
- Which book, film or series do you especially like?
- Which music are you playing on repeat at the moment?
- Which season do you like best, and why?
- What do you really not like?
- What's your biggest wish?
- How do we know each other?
Friendship book questions for children
Children who can't write yet tell their answers, and their parents write them down. Drawing tasks work as early as nursery.
- How old are you?
- Which toy have you had the longest?
- What do you most like building or making?
- What do you collect?
- What do you look forward to when you wake up in the morning?
- If you could do magic, what would you magic up?
- Which story do you like listening to most?
- What's the funniest thing you've ever seen?
- What do you like about your friends?
- What would you love to try one day?
- Which word do you already know in another language?
- What do you like doing most when it's raining outside?
- Draw your favourite place outdoors.
- Draw your dream house.
In a book the whole group gets, leave out the question about someone's best friend. Anyone who isn't named will read that too. “What do you like about your friends?” tells you more and doesn't hurt anyone.
Funny friendship book questions
The rule for funny questions: laugh with the person, not at them.
- Which noise can you imitate best?
- What would your name be if you were a superhero?
- Which animal would you swap places with for a day?
- Which food would you never try in your life?
- What did you get wrong for ages as a child?
- Which song do you sing when nobody's listening?
- If your life were a film, what would it be called?
- Which emoji do you send far too often?
- What would you do if you were invisible for a day?
- Which excuse have you used that nobody believed?
- What do you find funny that nobody else does?
- If you were a spice, which one would you be?
- Which thing is always lying around at your place?
- What would you invent so you never had to tidy up again?
Creative friendship book questions
Creative questions need a moment's thought. Two or three per page are plenty, otherwise filling it in starts to feel like homework.
- Describe yourself in three words.
- What would you put in a time capsule?
- Which place feels like home to you?
- What would you change if you were mayor for a day?
- Which smell takes you right back to when you were little?
- What holiday would you invent?
- Which question would you love to ask a famous person?
- What does a perfect Sunday look like for you?
- Which three things would you take to a desert island?
- Which invention is the world still missing?
- What would you still like to do with all of us?
- Write a sentence worth remembering.
Friendship book questions for adults
Adults like talking about the old days and about what they see differently now. A friendship book for a birthday, a farewell or a circle of friends thrives on questions like these. Ideas for the whole book are in our friendship book for adults.
- What did you want to be at twelve, and what became of it?
- Which piece of advice has helped you most in life?
- When did you last do something for the first time?
- What do you always make time for?
- What would you do with a year off?
- Which tradition would you like to pass on?
- What are you really good at without anyone knowing?
- Which song reminds you of us?
- What's your favourite memory of our time together?
- What do you do differently now compared with ten years ago?
- What would you really like to learn?
- What never fails to make you laugh?
- Where was your favourite holiday, and why?
- Which phrase do you say more often than you'd like?
Questions for teams
A team's friendship book is all about training, matches and the changing room. These questions work for any team sport, and you'll find the pages for each sport under a sports team yearbook for every sport. For football, there's also a football player profile template to print out.
- How long have you been playing in this team?
- Which position do you feel most at home in?
- Which shirt number do you wear, and why?
- Who was your first role model in your sport?
- What was your best moment this season?
- Which training drill do you like most, and which not at all?
- What do you always do before a match?
- Which song has to be playing in the changing room?
- What was the funniest away trip?
- What have you learned from your coach?
- What can this team do better than any other?
- What do you wish the team for next season?
Questions for school classes
This is about everyday life in the middle of the school year: the classroom, the way to school, the class council and the school fair. Questions about favourite subjects, break times and teachers are in our guide yearbook questions, sorted by leaving primary school, the tenth year and the Abitur. All our books for schools and nurseries are under school leavers' books and yearbooks.
- What's the best thing about your classroom?
- How do you get to school in the morning, and what do you see on the way?
- What must never be missing from your pencil case?
- Which day of the school week is the best, and why?
- What would you like to suggest at the class council one day?
- What would you offer at the next school fair?
- What do you do when a lesson is cancelled?
- What would you give a class award for?
- What would you most like to do on a project day?
- What makes a really good school day for you?
Questions for colleagues
In the office, the workshop or the shop: these questions work when you know each other well, and even more so when you don't. More about one book for the whole team on our page about the company yearbook.
- What was your first day at work here like?
- Coffee, tea or something else entirely?
- What do you do in your job that hardly anyone sees?
- Which team event was the best?
- What was your very first job?
- What surprised you most about your job here?
- Which word from our working day would nobody outside understand?
- Who would you like to swap jobs with for a day?
- What's at your workspace that has nothing to do with work?
- What was the funniest moment in a meeting?
- What are you grateful to the team for?
- What do you wish for in our next year together?
Which questions don't belong in a friendship book?
Anything that shows someone up or leaves them out. Everyone reads a book the whole group gets, including the person being written about.
- Questions about weight, school marks or money.
- Questions that ask someone to name people they don't like, and, for children, the question about who they have a crush on.
- Address and phone number, if the book goes to lots of people. They're often in a classic friendship book, but they have no place in a book for a whole group.
How many questions does a friendship book need?
Enough to fill the page without anyone losing interest. A good range is 12 to 18 short questions and four longer ones. Try the list out on one person first: if they're not finished after ten minutes, there are too many questions.
Friendship book questions in a printed book
A Flashbook already has questions like these: 14 short and 4 long ones per person, and a long answer is about one sentence. Everyone answers them on their phone in about 5 minutes and uploads two photos. In the printed book, each person then has their own double-page spread with photos, answers, name and signature. We adapt the title and questions to your group, so a team gets different questions from a school class. A book costs €24.90 including design, printing and shipping; the book holds 8 to 42 people, and the minimum order is 10 books.