Real Friends is probably the best title you can come up for this story, but unfortunately, it has very little to do with real friends. Maybe more in line with finding real friends or even figuring out who to spot real friends, but then you’d never be able to find the title for the story. My point is, don’t think that you’re going to read a happy story about “real friends” finding each other and going on great adventures. Not that this story isn’t happy, but it’s a lot like life in that everything comes in waves.

The story is autobiographical and follows author Shannon Hale through her first childhood friendships. What’s particularly great about this true story is that Hale acknowledges that it’s the truth to the best of her memory and that others may have a different story because everyone’s memory is different. After all, it’s set in elementary, and I would be hard pressed to remember this many details about those years myself and so my hats off to anyone that can remember this many details and structure it as a cohesive story.

As for the story, well it’s a familiar one in that it might have happened to you. Shannon makes friends with a girl named Adrienne, her first and best friend. Life pulls them apart, but luck brings them back together. A new school year begins, and Adrienne is friends with a girl named Jen from church, and so now Shannon finds herself in the precarious situation of having to share her friend. Eventually, a group forms and you’re either in the group or out. Jen is the leader of this group, but as the story goes on, it becomes clear that this is kind of a position that’s forced upon her due to her popularity with the other girls.

Shannon goes through a lot of ups and downs with the group, from not understanding her role in the group to being ousted for having too much fun with Jen. Shannon encounters bullies at school, but then also at home with her older sister. The sibling relationship is an interesting part of Real Friends because it shows how siblings can affect each other how that carries over to their friendships.

Without sugarcoating it the story is more sad than happy, but it does an incredible job of capturing the isolated feeling of loneliness that school seems to create. There’s no other experience that I can think of that can put you in emotional pain day in and day out, with no real way of fixing things. You almost need someone else to pull you out of despair or the courage to talk to someone about what you’re going through, and frankly, when you’re a kid, neither of those seems like viable options.

There are two great things about this story. The first is that it stars all female characters and never once delves into romance. The subject matter is friendship, and that’s where the focus stays. For that reason, it’s a great story for young girls to read and relate to, especially at an early age. The other great thing though, is that it’s so well-written and the experiences are universal that anyone can read this story and relate to it.

Bringing Hale’s story to life is LeUyen Pham’s wonderful illustrations. Pham’s artwork provides the tone of the book, and she does a wonderful job of bringing out emotions from the characters with facial expressions. You will truly feel Shannon’s loneliness, her job, her despair. More importantly, though, you’ll feel. You’ll be feeling the entire time, but you’ll root for Shannon, and a lot of that comes from Phan’s artwork. It’s clean, not overly detailed and perfect for the story. It’s great cartooning in that it’s complex in what details are added and subtracted. I’ll probably never find the words to describe that properly, but it’s something that hopefully makes sense when you see the artwork.

If you’re a parent of a young child that’s maybe not old enough to know the concept of friends, then this book might scare the crap out of you. It did for me because it made me remember what my childhood was like and realize that it’s a cycle that keeps ongoing and that my son could likely experience something similar. At least now I have a tool at my disposal to show him a better way to deal with things and let him know that it’s okay to talk about it.

Real Friends is a book all kids should read, but even more so a story that all parents should read with their kids. Which isn’t to say that no one else will enjoy Real Friends, quite the opposite. If you were a child once, which were you, then you’ll find that this is universally relatable and an entertaining story for all.

Oh, man. I think every girl has had at least one friend like those described in Real Friends. It’s amazing how much I related to it, and I think other girls will as well. Reading a book about successful and not-so-successful friendships was a refreshing break from my usual reads (action or romance.) Also, I liked how the main character’s life wasn’t sugar-coated, but it wasn’t glamorized, either. She had problems with her sister and it affected her mental health, but she learned from it and how to handle it. Overall, I loved it and I think it’s great for fans of Raina Telgemeier.

Great graphic novel that reflects school life. Probably more for middle school but there will kids in upper elementary that will benefit from this real life story called Real Friends.

Graphic novel and memoir and childhood memories. What's not to love about that?

A book about friendships that really hits the mark. Making and keeping friends can be a real challenge. Based on the author's own childhood, Shannon does not sugarcoat the meanness of others (intentional or unintentional) and the friends one day bit not the next relationships between elementary and tween girls.

Well, this took me by surprise! I thought that I would maybe enjoy this kind of... but instead, I LOVED IT! I will be recommending this 100%, for kids and even adults, because it is just really, really good.

I passed this one off to our school librarian to read. She is always looking for new books. Even tho it was a bit young for me I knew who it would fit. Well she ordered 30 of them last week.

Real Friends is a super relatable and realistic story of friendship, loneliness, and middle school awkwardness. It's also a fantastic way to introduce middle grade readers into graphic novels and comics for the first time as well as a great way to get reluctant readers interested in a meaningful story.

Love this book! Shared with my son who is in 5th grade and he said 'this is a must read Mom! You need to make sure all of your students can read it, so buy a lot of them!'

This was a story that every young girl should read. I think everyone goes through phases where they feel out of place or unappreciated for who they are and this book really does a beautiful job of making you feel like you are not alone.

Shannon Hale has long been a favorite of mine, and her cooperations with LeUyen Pham have always caught my eye. The fun, kinetic images are a great addition, and the emotional story will resonate with Telgemeier fans.

I give it up to Shannon Hale for tapping into her childhood, making herself vulnerable and her brave story. I'm sure many of us have experienced bullying behavior, isolation and peer frustrations in our youth. LeUyen's amazing illustrations -- lovingly drawn characters with bright colors -- gave me hope throughout the graphic novel that "it gets better." Thankfully, it does and I very much appreciated Shannon giving an update at the end of some "real life" clarifications letting readers know it took much longer to get to a semi-happily ever after.

Shannon and Adrienne had always been friends, which helped when Shannon felt shy. Adrienne later became friends with Jen and The Group. Some of the girls would be willing to do anything to be closer to Jen in The Group, even bully others not as popular.

This is a very real and sometimes painful look at elementary school years for girls. It's soul crushing to not be popular, and Shannon Hale drew on her own memories to tell this story. That gives it the emotional resonance for the reader, who inevitably would have felt the same growing up.

LeUyen Pham's art fits very naturally with the narrative, giving each character their childlike appearance and mannerisms without seeming "cartoony." We don't see the motivations for the other characters unless they tell Shannon, who is the point of view we're following.

My daughter also read this book and enjoyed the artwork. Shannon's story really resonated with her, and she particularly liked the hopeful ending. The characters felt very real and approachable to her. This is a middle-grade book, but even older readers will appreciate it and its honesty.

Awesome book about friendship, insecurity, and finding out who you are. Perfect read-alike for Smile and Sisters. In fact, I think I liked this one even better than those.

Thank you to Netgalley, First Second Books, LeUyen Pham, and Shannon Hale for the chance to read and review this ARC;

This book is incredibly charming. So much more charming than I ever expected. As a teacher, I can totally see having this in my classroom and advise to even high schoolers, for these tales of the search for the self, relating to school, and the trials and tribulations of friendship are universal to the growing years of your life. I spent an uncounted amount of time wanting to cry out "Omgosh, I felt that way, too!"

I cannot stress enough how every kid should have this book. I want it for my classroom and all my nieces/nephews already and can see it coming to them as birthday and Christmas presents as the rest of this year as celebrations present themselves.

In this charming graphic memoir Hale reflects on her elementary school years and focuses on childhood friendship. As a child Shannon feels lost. She does not quite fit in at home, being the middle child between two older and two younger siblings. Shannon also feels a bit lost at school with not finding friends her own age until she meets her first friend Adrienne who Shannon attaches to pretty quickly. As we all have experienced, childhood friendships are mercurial and changes quite frequently. When Adrienne moves up on the social ladder and becomes more popular she leaves Shannon behind and joins the "the group"'s ringleader Jen. Shannon remains on the outer fringes of the "group" where mean girl Jenny is determined to keep Shannon there by spreading rumors and bullying her. Eventually Shannon does find friends in sixth graders Zara and Veronica who show Shannon that being yourself and being nice is the key to popularity.
I like how the book is divided into sections titled with the name of a friend or frenemy: Adrienne, Jen, Jenny, Zara and Veronica, and Shannon's oldest sister Wendy, whom she imagines as an angry bear. It was very easy to empathize with Shannon’s painful experiences of being left out, teased, and bullied. While there are dark moments for Shannon, readers will rejoice whens he learns how to find real friends, avoid toxic ones, and stands up for herself. There is also a brief mention of Shannon developing mild OCD and undiscovered anxiety which contributed to her stress and frustration with making friends. Hale also does a good job in showing how Wendy also faced similar setbacks on finding friends too and eventually bonded with Shannon.
The illustrations are vibrant and the characters leap off the page. There is a nice balance between humorous and sensitive depictions of the young characters’ wide-ranging emotions that work well with the text. Real Friends will be a hit with fans of Raina Telgemeier’s and Cece Bell’s graphic memoirs.

Growing up can be hard. So can navigating elementary school, new friendships and older sisters. Shannon Hale has written a completely relatable story, based on events in her own life. I think that any elementary student will be able to see at least a little bit of themselves in Shannon and her friends. The illustrations are bright, colorful and expressive. I really enjoyed reading this graphic novel. I would definitely recommend this to fans of Raina Telgemeier, Jennifer Holm's Sunny Side Up and Victoria Jamieson's Roller Girl.

I loved this for so many reasons. It felt like my story being told, even though my differences from others were not the same as Shannon's. It wasn't until the end that I realized this was a memoir of sorts. Very true, very special, and really hit my heart.

Shannon Hale’s first graphic novel is an autobiographic tale of her life growing up. Specifically, it tells about her struggles with friendship. She experiences the full gamut, from friendlessness to becoming one of the popular girls to being ostracized and back again.

Shannon has been best friends with Adrienne since kindergarten. Adrienne is beautiful and kind. Shannon is assertive and imaginative. She comes up with the very best let’s pretend games! As they move up through the grades Adrienne naturally attracts the other popular girls. Shannon tags along at first, mostly because she is Adrienne’s closest friend but her imagination gives her a chance to earn her own place. One girl has a serious problem with this. Her jealousy leads to lies and other manipulations that push Shannon back into the fringes. Shannon has a strong sense of her own worth, though, and chooses to not play the same games. She’s bullied and called a baby when she loses control of her emotions. Finally, she lets it all go with surprising results.

Aside from a great message of valuing oneself and choosing quality friendships over just having someone to call friend, Real Friends has an incredible message of female empowerment. I love, love, LOVE the strong female roles Shannon makes up in her imagination games. Sometimes they’re super women with men falling at their feet (but they don’t need them, they have everything they need already!). Sometimes the’re spies. Sometimes something else. They are never damsels in distress. Never. When one boy tries to steal a kiss from Adrienne, Shannon channels one of her characters and scares the boy away. Adrienne is not impressed (she wanted to kiss him) until Shannon points out that if he really wants to kiss her, he could just ask. Oh yeah…

Good book for any age and great for preteens because honestly, I think most of us girls have either witnessed or experienced some level of what Shannon goes through in Real Friends and maybe it will give someone a stronger sense of what they should and should not put up with when it happens to them.

All school libraries should purchase at least a few copies of Real Friends.

This graphic novel with brilliant artwork by LeYuen Pham captures the social dynamics of girl friendship and bullying in elementary school. Hale's story of wanting to be part of the 'in crowd' and what hell that involved, is autobiographical. The photographs of her at various ages in the back matter add authenticity to the story.

I suspect that most young girls will be able to connect to the younger Shannon. I ended going down a memory lane or two that I have ignored.

What I liked most about this book is that it provides a model for how to extract yourself from these kinds of situations, and highlights the kinds of behaviours that are truly admirable.