From the New York Times bestselling author of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and the adult bestseller In the Unlikely Event comes a tale of family, friendship, and pre-teen life like only JUDY BLUME can deliver. The companion to Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson.
Can you have more than one best friend?
Stephanie’s best friend is Rachel. Since second grade they’ve shared everything, good and bad. But now it’s the start of seventh grade and Alison has just moved to their neighborhood. Stephanie immediately clicks with her—she’s cool and fun and totally humble even though she’s the daughter of a famous actress. Stephanie hopes all three of them can be best friends, but the more she pushes Alison on Rachel, the more Rachel seems to drift away. Is it possible to have two best friends? Or is it true that two’s company, three’s a crowd?
“Judy Blume does it again in what may be her best book yet!” –American Bookseller
This book and its followup, Here's To You Rachel Robinson are the only two Young Adult books by Judy Blume that I had not read as a young adult (they were published after my time). I saw them both at a Free Little Library and thought, why not?
It's good, but I don't know if I'm missing something reading it for the first time as an adult; some small essence of teen that can be recalled but not brought up fresh, or if this just isn't as good as Blume's other YA books. I enjoyed it but it failed to click with me on any deep level.
The girls' friendship is flawed from the beginning; secret keeping is a big part of the plot here, but of all the secrets kept and revealed, the biggest one
that Rachel knew about Steph's parents' separation before she did
(hide spoiler)
was never confronted or discussed. How do you know something like that and not bring it up with your friend? Keeping secrets about your own self is your prerogative, but keeping secrets that affect your bff seems inexcusable.
Who knows though, I might have missed some subtle hint that Steph knew and was just not facing it. Or maybe that just isn't a big deal to teens and I don't remember that far back as clearly as I'd like to. Either way, it was still a good read, even if it wasn't a classic Blume.
Reading updates
-
Started reading
-
1 March, 2017:
Finished reading
-
1 March, 2017:
Reviewed