My Worst Best Friend

Dyan Sheldon (author)

Walker Books, Australia: 2010; 300pp

ISBN: 9781406304206

Genres: realistic fiction

Issues: adolescence, friendship, identity, peer pressure

Gracie and Savanna have been friends forever. Or at least it feels like that. Surely it's not possible that Savanna could do anything that would make Gracie hand in her friendship card?

Savanna is one Those Girls - the ones who are normally part of the ‘in' crowd, who always look gorgeous, wear the ‘right' clothes, and have an endless string of friends. Gracie considers herself ordinary looking. And short. And she's more concerned about global warming than fashion. A species threatened with extinction has Gracie in tears. Savanna cries when she breaks a nail. How is it that two such very different girls can be best friends? And can it possibly stay that way? It doesn't occur to Gracie that such a friendship would ever break - despite the fact that Savanna has several other former besties who have been discarded. Gracie adores Savanna - her energy, her power-pack personality, even her dizziness.

Sheldon writes well for teenage girls, addressing issues that are a constant during adolescence. In My Worst Best Friend she explores the changing nature of friendship and demonstrates that, painful as it is, it's okay for relationships to alter as we grow and mature - especially if others don't. Gracie faces the harsh reality for many teenagers, gifted and otherwise, who find that they're often expected to compromise their own values and beliefs in order to keep another person happy. Sheldon challenges the idea that anybody should be asked to be someone they are not in order to please another person. She celebrates the idea of growth and change, of new relationships and perspectives, of moving into a larger world beyond the confines of playground politics and peer pressure.