Book review
Best Friends by Jacqueline Wilson (2004)
The trouble with being a child is that you aren't really in control of the important things, and everyone likes to think they are in control of the things that matter.
Take Gemma and Alice. They're best friends. They've been best friends ever since they were born on the same day in the same hospital. They went to the same nursery school, and the same infant school, and now they're together in the juniors. Gemma is the noisy, wild one. Alice is the quiet one with the long blonde hair.
If you've got a best friend you will be able to imagine how Gemma and Alice feel when Alice's parents decide to move a long way away, to Scotland:
I took a deep breath, as if I was about to blow out all the candles on my birthday cake all by myself for the first time.
'IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!' I shouted.
Auntie Karen jumped. Alice gasped. Mum shot up and seized me by the shoulders.
'Be quiet, Gemma!'
'I won't be quiet!' I roared. 'It's not fair. I hate you, Auntie Karen. You're taking my best ever friend away from me and you don't even care!'The thing is, it makes no difference how hard the girls cry, or how loudly they complain, Alice is going to move away, and nothing will bring her back again. So Gemma is going to have to face up to the fact that Alice will make new friends in Scotland. And Gemma will need to give in and find herself a new friend at school, because life does go on.
But, as Gemma and Alice discover, even if they do make new friends, there's no need to forget everything that they've shared together in the past.
Sad but happy. Read it. I'm sure you'll love it!
What can I read next?
The Jacqueline Wilson list grows ever longer! Another super insight into the difficulties that ordinary life can throw up! If you enjoy Jacqueline Wilson - and I don't see how you couldn't - I think you will enjoy any of these:
If you'd like to read another story about best friends, boys this time, have a look at this one by Anne Fine:
Or you might like to see how Bonnie and Sylvia, orphans with an evil guardian, get on in this brilliant adventure series by Joan Aiken:
Also, the Bookchooser has found these books with a similar profile:
- Nicholas by Renee Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempe (Score: 89%)
- The Third-Class Genie by Robert Leeson (Score: 86%)
- Hazel Green by Odo Hirsch (Score: 86%)
- Fly, Cherokee, Fly by Chris d'Lacey (Score: 86%)
- Lizzie Dripping by Helen Cresswell (Score: 86%)
Best Friends features in these lists: