Best Best Friends

Best Best Friends

Written by Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Suggested Grade Level: PreK-1st

Genre: Contemporary Realistic Fiction

            Did have a best, best friend in preschool? Did you two do everything together? Clare and Mary are the best of friends in Best Best Friends until jealousy strikes Clare one day in school. 

            Best Best Friends starts out by introducing Clare and Mary as best friends. Everyday when they got to preschool, they would give each other a hug, sit together at story time, and hold hands when they would go outside to play. “You are my best best friend,” Clare tells Mary. “You are my best best friend, too,” Mary tells Clare, (page 5.) When it is Mary’s birthday, she got hugs from everybody, sat next to the teacher at story time, and when it is time to go outside, Mary got to be at the front of the line. At snack time, there is a party for Mary with cupcakes with pink frosting and pink sprinkles. Clare tells Mary if it were her party she would have yellow cupcakes with yellow sprinkles because yellow is prettier than pink. Mary grows mad at Clare and they say they are mad at each other and not friends anymore. Mary goes and plays with Kaitlin and Clare plays with Ben. Later, Mary draws a picture for Clare and says happy birthday. Mary suggests building a teddy bear castle and taking turns being Teddy Bear Queen. Moments later, they tell each other that they are best BEST friends.

            The events in this story could happen in any classroom. Jealousy can occur quite often. Clare needed to realize that it was Mary’s special day, and one day it would be Clare’s special day. Clare, driven with anger said, “If it were my birthday, I would have yellow cupcakes with yellow sprinkles. Yellow is prettier than plain old pink,” (page 11.) Clare said this while Mary is wearing a pink dress, pink socks, and pink shoes. Then they yell that they are not friends anymore. Children say all the time that they “hate you” or “we’re not friends,” but they do not genuinely mean it. Before the end of the school day in this story, they became friends again and could not wait to see each other the next day in school.

            Clare and Mary are acting exactly how preschoolers would act. It was very believable. Having the setting of the story take place within a classroom added to the plot. The actions in this story are consistent with everyday contemporary problems with children. I think the story could hold a child’s interest because it is a happy story in the beginning and about children their own age. The illustrations in this book are wonderful. The clothes the children are wearing are patterns and look like they have texture. Every page is very bright and appealing. This story could help a child realize they do not need to be jealous of a child in their class who’s birthday is that day.

Analysis of literary elements:

Character: Mary and Clare act like any preschooler would. Clare’s jealousy of Mary is not surprising what so ever. Insulting Mary’s favorite color and color choice of the cupcakes seemed very typical.

Setting: The setting of Best Best Friends takes place in a preschool classroom. I’m glad there was a teacher shown to make it seem realistic. Preschool classes usually have only a small number of students. In this particular classroom there were nine students. On the pages with children, there are the same nine students.

Plot: The beginning of the story starts with Mary and Clare happily being best friends. It is apparent that they do everything together. The rising action is that on Mary’s birthday she gets a lot attention from her classmates and Clare become jealous. Mary gets big hugs from everyone, sits next to the teacher a story time, gets to be first in line to go outside, and everyone sing “Happy Birthday” to her at snack time while she wore a golden birthday crown. The climax is when Clare insults Mary’s choice of cupcakes and her favorite color. They scream that they are no longer friends. The falling action is when they each go their separate ways and play with different students and Clare draws a picture for Mary. The story ends with Mary and Clare getting along and playing together. The girls agree that they are best friends.

Theme: The two themes of this story are friendship and jealousy. Young children get jealous very easily. It did not take much for Clare to become jealous of Mary. Friendship is important very with children. Mary and Clare have a good friendship since they overcame jealousy and envy.  

Author’s Writing Style: Margaret Chodos-Irvine’s writing in this story is very simple. The sentences are short and sweet. There are only a few words on the pages. Some pages do not have words on them at all.

Massachusetts ELA Frameworks:

RL. 8.14. Make judgments about setting, characters, and events and support them with evidence from the text.