Friendship among three kids can be fraught, as any former kid (or current parent) knows. There’s always a chance that one member will be sidelined, and that often changes on a whim. But triangles can also be remarkably sturdy in spite or even because of the personality mix and occasional conflicts. I’ve been a member of several friendship trios, successful and not, so I’ve experienced both sides (all three sides?) of the issue. My books often feature triangular friendships because they naturally give rise to complex, personality-driven bickering, which is one of my favorite things to write.
The middle-grade classic Harriet the Spy was my favorite book as a kid. I read it so many times that my copy pretty much fell apart, and lots of tape had to be deployed to hold it together. Harriet is an aspiring writer with a great imagination, a daily neighborhood spy route, and a notebook in which she records her observations. She has two good friends: Janie, a cranky scientist; and Sport, a matter-of-fact athlete. The three seem to have nothing in common, but in spite of that, their triangular friendship is well balanced…until it falls apart, and Harriet has to put it back together by – gulp – apologizing.
First published in 1974, a title in which Harriet M. Welsch, aspiring author, keeps a secret journal in which she records her thoughts about strangers and friends alike, but when her friends find the notebook with all its revelations, Harriet becomes the victim of a hate campaign.
This book had me with the title alone. Who hasn’t spent a boring school break looking for something – anything – mysterious to investigate? Paul and his two best friends live in a small town in which nothing interesting happens…until hundreds of rubber duckies appear in a nearby yard one morning. Together, Paul (the hilariously observant narrator), Shanks (tiny but tough), and Peephole (whose many fears include the sound of other people’s sneezes) figure out how all those ducks ended up on Mr. Babbage’s lawn. The friendship here is comfortable and worn in, based on fond tolerance of one another’s quirks – as the best friendships usually are.
The best mysteries can only be solved with your best friends. The perfect summer read for fans of Stuart Gibbs.
Paul Marconi has always thought that Bellwood was a strange town, but also a boring one. Not much for an eleven-year-old to do. Fires are burning nearby, Paul's parents are obsessed with winning a bratwurst contest, and his best friend, one of the founding members of their only-child detective club, the One and Onlys, is about to acquire a younger sister, sort of undoing their whole reason for existing. But then! Hundreds of rubber duckies have appeared on the lawn…
Here we have a triangular friendship among three slight oddballs, which is one of my favorite kinds. It begins and is tested in the midst of a spate of local animal disappearances. Nestor, the narrator, is new in town (yet again) and doesn’t plan to put down roots. He also has a secret: he can talk to animals (and boy, do they ever talk back!). Almost in spite of himself, he befriends classmates Maria Carmen and Talib, and with help from some fauna with plenty of attitude, the three manage to save their town from a nasty witch—and cement their friendship along the way.
All twelve-year-old Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad, an Army sergeant deployed in Afghanistan. When he and his mother move to a new town to live with his grandmother, Nestor plans to lay low, and he certainly has no intention of letting anyone find out his deepest secret-that he can talk to animals. But when the animals in town start disappearing, and Nestor's grandmother is spotted in the woods where they were last seen, suspicion mounts against her. Nestor learns that they are being taken…
Moving away from triangles involving friends of the same age and relative size, this is a fantasy in which an orphan girl named Stub must make a perilous journey in order to – spoiler alert – save the queendom. Her companions are an overly enthusiastic young chef’s apprentice and an elderly wizard who, much to his own annoyance, is small enough to fit in Stub’s pocket due to an errant spell. The dynamic doesn’t start out very promisingly, but in the end, the three make a great team. I love the theme of friendship forming among unlike persons thrown into peril together – and having one of them be many times older (and many times smaller) than the other two is an irresistible twist.
From critically acclaimed author Jessica Lawson comes a “wonderfully enchanting adventure” (Booklist) about an orphaned twelve-year-old girl who is called upon to save her queendom when she finds a tiny wizard in her pocket.
Life’s never been kind to twelve-year-old Stub. Orphaned and left in the care of the cruel Matron Tratte, Stub’s learned that the best way to keep the peace is to do as she’s told. No matter that she’s bullied and that her only friend is her pet chicken, Peck, Stub’s accepted the fact that her life just isn’t made for adventure. Then she finds a tiny…
This fantasy has a thoroughly realistic triangle that starts out as a friendship between two kids and eventually draws a third in – with much confusion and some resentment along the way. Cressi and Nate are on the lowest rung of a highly stratified society. When Cressi accidentally meets Beau, the heir to the throne, she befriends him despite their differences. But it will take a dangerous trip and a lot of arguments before Nate comes around. Many friendship triangles form when a new person joins an established duo, and there’s always plenty of opportunity for sparks to fly in this situation. Making the new person the future ruler of the other two ups the spark level considerably.
The heir to the Land should be strong. Fierce. Ruthless. At least, that’s what Beau’s father has been telling him his whole life, since Beau is the exact opposite of what the heir should be. With little control over his future, Beau is kept locked away, just another pawn in his father’s quest for ultimate power.
When Alex’s aunt offers to pay him to point out the boring parts in her children’s book, he sees a quick way to make ten easy bucks. But her book is about a grumpy frog and a prizewinning zucchini. It doesn’t have a few boring pages…the whole thing is a snore.
Alex gives her some great ideas—like adding danger and suspense. And ditching the frogs and the zucchini. But books have to be believable as well as exciting. So he recruits his two best friends to help him act out scenes so he can describe the details realistically. This is when Alex discovers that being a stunt double for a fictional character can land you in lots of nonfictional trouble.
From the time I was a girl, I’ve loved stories that put a lump in my throat even as I’m laughing. As a fiction writer, that funny-sad tone is the one I go for in my own work. I gravitate toward female protagonists of all ages who break the mold—women who are intelligent and strong but who also have unconventional, quirky personalities. Women who can be hilarious, infuriating, and heartbreaking—sometimes all at once. Because they are complex and unique, these women tend to struggle with life’s challenges more than their contemporaries. That’s what makes their stories so interesting, and why I have chosen the books on this list.
When Mar’s husband divorces her, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy starting over, she’s ready for new adventures—as long as she can keep things casual. Each month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next: a fellow gym member down on her luck, a flirty hip-hop instructor, a bossy but comical consultant. . . and a handsome novelist who wants more than she can give. Mar learns from each encounter. But can she open herself up to true connection?
Surrounded by quirky, endearing characters, Mar navigates her…
"A fun, entertaining novel! I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy this book as much as I did." -Leslie A. Rasmussen, award-winning author
When Mar Meyer's husband divorces her for another woman, she reacts by abandoning everything in her past: her home, her friends, even her name. Though it's not easy to start over, Mar is young-looking, fit, and ready for new adventures-as long as she can keep things casual.
With each passing month, Mar goes from one acquaintance to the next. Among them: a fellow gym member down on her luck, a flirty hip-hop instructor, a bossy but comical…
