The Kind of Friends We Used to Be

norzie452 - The book that I recently finished is called The Kind of Friends We Used to Be by Frances O'roark Dowell. This book is about these two friends, Kate and Marylin that used to be best friends but slowly grew apart from each other. They both want to be friends again, but don't know how. While they are trying to fix their relationship, they are just becoming more unalike every second. Kate wants to learn guitar and wear big black combat boots while Marylin wants to make sure she looks her finest and wants to make sure her cheerleader friends still like her. But when they both discover new people their view of things change a bit. I have been meaning to read this book forever, but I never got the chance too. I didn't really like this book as much as I thought I would because it didn't really have a huge climax and I didn't really like how it was narrated in third person narration. I was a little confused on what their background story to their friendship was because I made a mistake by reading the second book in the series without reading the first book. This book is realistic fiction because it could happen and come true, but it hasn't actually happened yet. I would recommend this book to younger girls, about age ten. I think this because this book wasn't that challenging. I recommend this book to girls only because the first book in the series is called The Secret Language of Girls. I am pretty sure that no boys would be interested in that book nor the sequel to it. One example of an external conflict is man vs society because Kate doesn't think she fits in with anyone just because no one else in the grade wants to learn guitar and has big black combat boots like she does. One example of an internal conflict is man vs self because when Marylin doesn't know if she should run for school government just because of Mazie, her friend (also known as the meanest cheerleader alive) intimidating her.

December 8, 2008
This sequel to Dowell's The Secret Language of Girls
follows Marylin and Kate as they start seventh grade on a tense note, having drifted from being BFFs to being neighbors who tiptoe around each other, unsure of what to say. The third-person perspective shifts between the two: Marylin learns that being a cheerleader means putting up with obnoxious snobs, and Kate develops an interest in songwriting. This even-handedness is both a strength and a weakness. Both girls are sympathetic but the constant switching back and forth between their various crises—Marylin's parents' divorce; Kate's anxiety over a cute boy in her creative writing club—means neither girl's story gets substantial treatment. It's more a slice of middle school life, kept afloat by Dowell's smart insights into the way the middle school mind works. The territory is familiar, but for girls on either end of a friendship whose contours keep changing, Dowell's treatment will act as a balm. Ages 8–12.