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Friendship in Children's and Young Adult Literature
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From: Megan Schliesman <schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 13:02:51 -0500
I was working on a project this morning and came upon Jacqueline Woodson's "After Tupac and D Foster" and thought "friendship!"
This is one of many books by Jacqueline Woodson that explores friendship, including--in the case of this book--the way it can expand. The two girls we first meet move in and out of each other’s homes with the certainty of belonging, and share frustration over mothers who keep a tight watch over everything they do. D Foster is a complete unknown when she enters their lives, and parts of her life remain a mystery to them over the next two years the story chronicles. D lives with a foster mother who trusts her to roam the city. She has freedom the other two girls envy (and no doubt they have a sense of stability and permanency that D is drawn to). D is looking for friendship and the two best friends find it easy to expand their hearts and embrace her.
All three girls are smart, sensitive, and open-hearted in an honest and genuine way. How refreshing when so many novels explore the angst of peer relationships.
But, ok, speaking of angst....
Frances O'Roark Dowell's "The Secret Language of Girls" looks at the way good friends can grow apart, and how that separation can be fueled by insecurity and awfulness (of behavior). But the book that I like even more is Dowell's "The Kind of Friends We Used to Be," which follows the same two characters--Kate and Marylin--into the following year--their second year of middle school. They now peer into one another's lives, trying to make sense of who the other is, or has become. For both girls, the surprising new friendships they develop with others help them find solid footing once again in their relationship with each other.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Tue 08 May 2012 01:02:51 PM CDT
Date: Tue, 08 May 2012 13:02:51 -0500
I was working on a project this morning and came upon Jacqueline Woodson's "After Tupac and D Foster" and thought "friendship!"
This is one of many books by Jacqueline Woodson that explores friendship, including--in the case of this book--the way it can expand. The two girls we first meet move in and out of each other’s homes with the certainty of belonging, and share frustration over mothers who keep a tight watch over everything they do. D Foster is a complete unknown when she enters their lives, and parts of her life remain a mystery to them over the next two years the story chronicles. D lives with a foster mother who trusts her to roam the city. She has freedom the other two girls envy (and no doubt they have a sense of stability and permanency that D is drawn to). D is looking for friendship and the two best friends find it easy to expand their hearts and embrace her.
All three girls are smart, sensitive, and open-hearted in an honest and genuine way. How refreshing when so many novels explore the angst of peer relationships.
But, ok, speaking of angst....
Frances O'Roark Dowell's "The Secret Language of Girls" looks at the way good friends can grow apart, and how that separation can be fueled by insecurity and awfulness (of behavior). But the book that I like even more is Dowell's "The Kind of Friends We Used to Be," which follows the same two characters--Kate and Marylin--into the following year--their second year of middle school. They now peer into one another's lives, trying to make sense of who the other is, or has become. For both girls, the surprising new friendships they develop with others help them find solid footing once again in their relationship with each other.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison 600 N. Park Street, Room 4290 Madison, WI 53706
608/262-9503 schliesman_at_education.wisc.edu
www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
Received on Tue 08 May 2012 01:02:51 PM CDT
