Novels
about Friendship
Reviews by Ms.
Belben
Updated January
2007
Fredericks,
Mariah. The True Meaning of Cleavage. © 2003.
(Fiction/Young Adult).
f
you’ve ever had a close friend who has been by your side for years, you may have
worried that things wouldn’t always be great between the two of you—that at some
point, you might grow apart, when either of you found other friends or interests
or got a boyfriend or girlfriend and spent time away from your best friend.
That’s what happens to Jess. She and Sari have been
friends for years—best friends—and they have just started ninth grade
together. Jess is used to the
attention Sari gets from guys—she’s always been the prettier one—but
she’s learned to live with it because Sari has never paid much attention to
the boys, and she’s always maintained her close friendship with Jess. But when
they start high school, things are different.
Sari reveals to Jess that she has a crush on an older guy.
She doesn’t reveal who, but Jess soon learns that Sari is interested in David
Cole, a senior who has been dating the same popular girl for years.
Jess tries to convince Sari that she doesn’t have a chance, but Sari is
undeterred, and she eventually proves Jess wrong—she does attract David’s
attention, but at a price.
Jess soon discovers that Sari’s relationship with David Cole has become very involved—Sari is meeting him at his house every week in the afternoons, and the two are secretly spending time together. Sari is convinced that it’s only a matter of time before David dumps his girlfriend and goes public about his relationship with her, but Jess isn’t so sure, and she’s worried that her friend may be in for a great deal of hurt.
Henkes,
Kevin.
Olive’s Ocean. ©2003. (Fiction)
Imagine that a classmate—someone you didn’t know well and
who wasn’t particularly well-liked at school—were suddenly killed in an
accident. Even if you weren’t friends with the person, her death might make you
sad. Imagine how much sadder you might feel if her mother brought you pages from
her diary, and you discovered that the classmate—this dead girl—had always
wished that you would be her friend?
This is what happens to Martha Boyle. Her classmate, Olive, is hit by a car, and Olive’s mother brings her pages from Olive’s diary. Martha feels guilty when she learns Olive had always admired her—and she never really paid much attention to Olive. Martha also discovers that Olive always wanted to be a writer.
When her family goes for their annual summer visit to her grandmother, Godbee, at the ocean, Martha vows to make up for not befriending Olive when she was alive. She starts writing a story about Olive. The summer also holds a number of other important events for Martha. The Manning boys who live nearby suddenly seem different—especially Jimmy—and Godbee seems to be changing, fading almost. The story of Olive’s summer at the ocean is full of changes for her—and learning, and growth, too.
Fuqua, Jonathan Scott.
The Reappearance of Sam Webber. (YA Fiction).
In THE REAPPEARANCE OF SAM
WEBBER by Jonathan Scott Fuqua, eleven-year-old Sam Webber and his mother move
to a poorer section of Baltimore after being abandoned by Sam's father.
The
two struggle to make enough money to live, and Sam grieves his father. At
school, he is bullied by larger kids
and unhappy until he is befriended by the elderly black custodian, Greely, who
protects and cares for Sam to make up for his own mistakes with his children
decades earlier.
Other adults buoy Sam--his mother, her friends
Junie and Ditch, his mother's boyfriend, Howard, and the waitress, Rose, who has
known Sam for years. All of them help Sam see his own strengths and help
his grow and experience happiness despite the absence of his father in this
well-written, entertaining story.
Koertge,
Ron. Stoner and Spaz.
© 2002 (Fiction/YA).
Imagine struggling to walk
everywhere you go—each step a painful one that involves dragging your
handicapped leg behind you Imagine enduring high school with this
disability—people staring, bullies poking fun, people calling you “spaz.”
And imagine that despite your disability, you are intelligent and
funny—and interested in dating.
Sixteen-year-old Ben
Bancroft has never really fit it. Abandoned by his mother and father, he has
been raised by his grandmother, who is more concerned about the way Ben looks
than how he feels. And he feels bad, much of the time, because his cerebral
palsy handicaps his walking, makes it impossible for him to drive, and isolates
him from his peers. He’s used to spending hours alone, watching old movies,
which he loves. Until one day, in the theater, he encounters another
misfit—his classmate, Colleen, who has a reputation around school for using
and selling drugs. She befriends Ben, and the two begin an unlikely, sweet, and
short, romance.
As Ben becomes more
involved with Colleen, he also becomes more aware of the life she is leading and
of the danger she courts with her drug dealing and use and with her
ex-boyfriend, Ed, and he wonders how much he’s willing to sacrifice in order
to have her companionship and love.
Mackler,
Carolyn. Vegan Virgin Valentine. ©2004. (Fiction)
When her much-older sister traipses off to Costa Rica with
yet another boyfriend, Mara’s same-age niece, Vivian (V) comes to stay with her
and her parents. V is as unhappy about the arrangement as Mara is—she’s tough,
tired of her mother’s activities, and usually does whatever she has to, no
matter how negative, to get attention.
Mara is a straight-A, college bound student who find her valedictorian lifestyle severely disrupted by V, who immediately messes up Mara’s social life, gets in trouble at school, and establishes a reputation that embarrasses Mara.
When Mara gets involved with her (slightly) older boss, James, she also struggles to keep her friendship with her best friend—who’s had a long-term crush on James—intact. When V helps her keep James a secret, Mara begins to see her in a different light.
Fans of Sarah Dessen and Meg Cabot will appreciate the humor, as well as Mara’s unique struggles with her niece, her parents, and her decisions about sexuality, school, and the future.
Mass,
Wendy. Leap Day. ©2004. (Fiction).
On her sixteenth birthday, which also happens to be Leap
Day—the 29th of February, which only comes every 4 years—Josie Taylor
tries out for the part of Juliet in the school play, tries to catch the
attention of her crush, Grant, receives a mysterious note from her best friend,
takes her driver’s test, and enjoys a wealth of surprises from her parents, who
love showering her with gifts on her official, real, and very rare birthday.
Besides hearing first-hand from Josie about everything that happens to her on this special and unique day, we also get glimpses into the minds and futures of other characters in the book, whose thoughts are interspersed between the chapters that Josie narrates. These interruptions offer a really unique texture to the novel that feels a little bit like the snapshot images that show “what else” in the movie Run, Lola, Run.
I especially appreciated Josie’s relationship with her older brother, Rob, who, although he teases her a little bit, ultimately turns out to be a pretty nice guy. Josie’s circle of friends display some hints of being slightly competitive and imperfect, but they, too, turn out to be supportive and fun, and not without a few secrets of their own…
Wendy Mass has done a great of creating a believable and memorable setting, too, which isn’t something I notice about most books. But Leap Day takes place in Orlando, Florida, and many of the character’s lives are affected somehow by the omni-presence of Disney World—including Josie’s father, who has a secret desire to become a part of the Magic Kingdom.
This fun, thoughtful, and unique story will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen, Meg Cabot, Ann Brashares (author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and its sequel, The Second Summer of the Sisterhood), and the Jonah Black series.
McWilliams,
Kelly.
Doormat.
First-time novelist and high school student Kelly McWilliams is off to a pretty good start with Doormat, her novel about a fourteen-year-old girl who must decided how to help her best friend, who’s just discovered she’s pregnant.
This fast-paced, easy-to-read story about the first few weeks of Melissa’s pregnancy shows how Jaime reacts to her friend’s announcement and how she and another friend try to help Melissa deal with the situation.
The strong, funny voice of the narrator, Jaime, will really pull you into the story, and the dilemma will get readers thinking about how they might handle the same situation. If you’ve read other books about teenagers dealing with parenthood—Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen, Don’t Think Twice by Ruth Pennebaker, or Hanging on to Max by Margaret Bechard, you might also like this story.
Oates,
Joyce Carol. Big Mouth and Ugly
Girl. ©2002. Fiction/Young
Adult.
Ursula
Riggs—Ugly Girl, as she calls herself—a smart, athletic, but not terribly
popular student who longs for companionship.
Matt
Donaghy, a funny, smart, student at the same school, is known as the class
clown.
Ursula
soon reveals to Matt that she overheard what really happened, and she goes to
administrators with what she knows is the truth: that Matt was joking about
blowing up the school, and that anyone who witnessed what happened would know
that—unless they were trying to get Matt in trouble.
After
charges against Matt are dropped and he returns to school, his former
friends—the same people who didn’t speak up when he was originally
accused—now want to be friends again, but Matt is dubious.
He finds Ursula, and she sticks with him. The two support each other as
things again become difficult for Matt when his parents decide to sue the school
district for their treatment of him and many in the community disapprove of the
lawsuit.
Again,
Ursula comes to the rescue when she discovers who Matt’s original accusers
are, and uncovers their reasons for defaming him and creating trouble for his
family.
Big
Mouth and Ugly Girl is a well-written, intriguing story about two
unlikely friends who face dilemmas together and support each other when it seems
no one else will, containing both suspense and romance, as well as much for
readers to think about.
Randle, Kristen D. Slumming.
© 2003 (Fiction).
Three teens—the only Mormons in their school—decided to
“adopt” other students in their school as part of a special, secret project
to improve those people’s lives.
Alicia, Nikki, and Sam each choose a person who seems to be
in need of a friend, with the ultimate goal to “help” that person and then
eventually invite their project person to the prom.
Popular Nikki chooses nerdy Brian as her project, and what
she learns from him changes her much more than he is changed by her presence in
his life.
Alicia is drawn to a mysterious bad boy named Morgan,
hoping to discover someone kind under his tough exterior, but discovers that
people are, sometimes, just who they seem to be—or at least unwilling or
unable to—change or reveal their true selves.
Sam’s choice of Tia, a tough, hard-to-like and withdrawn classmate, presents perhaps the most challenging choice. Tia has been described as the “person most likely to beat you with chains,” and Sam has a tough time getting into her world. But once he does, he discovers the horrible secret underneath her tough exterior.
Rubio, Gwyn Hyman. Icy
Sparks. (Fiction/Oprah’s Book Club).
Icy Sparks grows up with
her grandparents in Kentucky after her mother and father die, and she struggles
with Tourette’s Syndrome—fits of swearing,
twitching,
and eye-bugging that are undiagnosed, and make her the object of her
classmates’ ridicule. Eventually
her behavior lands her in a mental hospital, where she is mistreated by an evil
nurse but finds some comfort with a kind social worker.
Her greatest source of
strength, however, is the friendship of an obese woman in her hometown, who
teaches her to love herself just the way she is. By the end of the novel, Icy has become a therapist who helps
other children with disabilities and differences like her own.
If you enjoyed other southern novels, such as To Kill a Mockingbird and books Wally Lamb and Olive Ann Burns, you’ll also like this new, funny southern voice.