Make Friends, Break Friends

Tension in girls’ friendships starts young and Make Friends, Break Friends is a simple book for the young reader which acknowledges this fact. Daisy has two best friends, Phoebe and Erika, but they don’t get on with one another. Erika thinks Phoebe is feeble and Phoebe thinks Erika is a mean show-off. Daisy is caught in the middle and feels like she can’t keep either of them happy, so she sets out on a mission to get her two best friends to like each other. Naturally, this doesn’t go to plan and for a while it is Daisy herself that they both fall out with.

The book succeeds in providing a space to think and talk about the angst that young friendships can cause, while demonstrating that this is not necessarily anyone’s fault. With a different chapter for each girl’s point of view, we can see how each of them is partly responsible for the resulting fall out, as well as how well -intended actions can easily be misinterpreted. Young girls will find much to recognise in the dynamic of the characters’ relationships. While the book uses occasional humour and it all works out in the end, there is little sign of the real joy of great friendships. It could have benefited from some more light to balance the shade.