Article
BFFs: Perkins’ Recommended Reads
Time to whip up some friendship bracelets! The topic of friendship has been written about since antiquity. Friendship has been novelized, celebrated in verse, and exemplified in various forms of non-fiction.
Time to whip up some friendship bracelets!
The topic of friendship has been written about since antiquity. Friendship has been novelized, celebrated in verse, and exemplified in various forms of non-fiction. While the Perkins Library’s collection holds thousands of titles focusing on friends, this offering presents selections that may be quite new and some may quite familiar.
Digital book (DB), braille (BR), large print (LT), and audio described videos (DVD) copies of these titles are available from the Perkins Library or the Worcester Talking Book Library. Please contact the library to order any of these books.
Prepared by James Gleason
Deputy Director/Special Services Librarian
Perkins Library
All the Single Ladies
Dorothea Benton Frank
Lisa was nurse to the dying Kathy, and she bonded with Kathy’s two best friends as they visited her at the hospice. After Kathy’s death, the three women ponder the mystery of Kathy’s life and what she left behind, while looking for their own second chances. Some strong language. Bestseller. 2015.
Download All the Single Ladies
All the Summer Girls
Meg Donohue
On the day her fiancé breaks off their engagement, Kate Harrington discovers she’s pregnant. Her best friends Vanessa and Dani are also facing life changes, so the three women spend the summer together regrouping in the New Jersey beach town of their youth. Strong language. 2013.
Download Braille, All the Summer Girls
Another Brooklyn
Jacqueline Woodson
August returns to Brooklyn to settle the affairs of her father after his death. When she chances upon one of her best friends from childhood, Sylvia, on the train, she reminisces about growing up in the 1970s with Sylvia and her other best friends, Angela and Gigi. Some descriptions of sex. 2016.
Download Braille, Another Brooklyn
Anything but Typical
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Sixth-grader Jason Blake is autistic—a silent boy who has trouble fitting in with neurotypicals. He prefers to communicate on the Storyboard web site, where he meets PhoenixBird, a girl who likes his writings. What will happen when they attend the Storyboard convention and meet in person? For grades 4-7. Schneider Family Book Award. 2009.
Download Braille, Anything but Typical
Barefoot Season
Susan Mallery
Wounded army veteran Michelle Sanderson returns to her family’s Puget Sound island inn that is now run by her onetime friend, single mom Carly Williams. The women attempt a working relationship despite their past betrayals and current problems. Strong language, some violence, and some explicit descriptions of sex. Commercial audiobook. 2012.
Beach Trip
Cathy Holton
Four former college friends reunite at a North Carolina beach house twenty-three years after graduation. Lola, Annie, Mel, and Sara relive the past, confront misunderstandings, reveal secrets, and reestablish their commitment to stay in touch. And one decides to drastically change her life. Some strong language. 2009.
Because of Winn-Dixie
Kate DiCamillo
Ten-year-old India Opal and her preacher dad move to a new town in Florida during the summer. Opal is lonely until she adopts a big stray dog she names Winn-Dixie. The two soon make friends with the local librarian, the pet store manager, and a nearly-blind elderly neighbor. For grades 3-6. 2000.
Download Because of Winn-Dixie
Download Braille, Because of Winn-Dixie
A Blue and Gray Christmas
Joan A. Medlicott
When a historic restoration crew unearths a rusty box, friends Grace, Amelia, and Hannah discover it contains the diaries and letters of two soldiers—one Southern and one Northern—chronicling the Civil War era in Covington, North Carolina. The women track down the men’s descendants and arrange a reunion. 2009.
Download A Blue and Gray Christmas
Download Braille, A Blue and Gray Christmas
A Brand-new Day with Mouse and Mole
Wong Herbert Yee
After moths eat holes in Mole’s shirts and pants, Mouse helps him buy new clothes and surprises him by patching his old clothes in a special way. Meanwhile Mole finds a new use for an old tire to surprise Mouse. Commercial Audio. Print/Braille. For grades K-3. 2008.
Download A Brand-new Day with Mouse and Mole
Download Braille, A Brand-new Day with Mouse and Mole
A Gift for Tia Rosa
Karen T. Taha
Carmela loves her elderly neighbor, Tia Rosa, and can hardly wait for her to return home from the hospital and get well. Carmela is saddened and upset when Tia Rosa dies, for she wanted to surprise her with a gift. But when Tia Rosa’s granddaughter is born, Carmela at last finds a gift for Tia Rosa. For grades K-3.
A Handful of Stars
Cynthia Lord
When her blind dog, Lucky, slips his collar, twelve-year-old Lily meets Salma Santiago, a young Hispanic girl whose migrant family is in Maine for the blueberry-picking season. The two forge a friendship, but are confronted with some of the hard truths of prejudice and migrant life. For grades 4-7. 2015.
Download Braille, A Handful of Stars
A Summer in Sonoma
Robyn Carr
Four girlfriends since high school worry about their lives as they face the big three-oh, each with different problems. Beth, a doctor, hides her cancer; Marty’s husband takes her for granted; Julie has too many kids and too many bills; and Cassie can’t find Mr. Right. Some strong language. 2010.
This Side of Home
Renée Watson
Twins Nikki and Maya Younger agree on most things. But as their senior year begins, they react differently to the gentrification of their Portland, Oregon, neighborhood and the new white family that moves in—after their best friend and her mother are evicted. For senior high and older readers. 2015.
An Unlikely Friendship: a Novel of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley
Ann Rinaldi
Mary Todd Lincoln, raised in a wealthy Virginia family, and Lizzy Keckley, a dressmaker born a slave, grow up separately but become best friends when Mary’s childhood dream of living in the White House comes true. For grades 6-9. 2007.
Download An Unlikely Friendship
The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy
Kate Hattemer
When a sleazy reality television show takes over Ethan’s arts academy, he and his friends concoct an artsy plan to take it down. Some strong language. For senior high and older readers. 2014.
Download The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy
Download Braille, The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy
War of the Encyclopaedists
Christopher Gerald Robinson
Mickey Montauk and Halifax Corderoy find their friendship tested when Mickey’s orders to report for duty in Iraq with his National Guard unit come through. Hal continues on to grad school. Complications arise with Hal’s roommate, Tricia, and his sometime girlfriend, Mani. Violence, strong language, and explicit descriptions of sex. 2015.
Download War of the Encyclopaedists
Waiting to Exhale
Terry McMillan
Phoenix, Arizona; 1990. Four African American girlfriends commiserate over the lack of eligible men. Savannah has moved to town at the urging of the jilted Bernadine. Robin jumps from one loser to another, while Gloria tries to ignore her nonexistent love life. Strong language and explicit descriptions of sex. 1992.
What a Woman Wants
Brenda Jackson
After their close friend Cely commits suicide, Faith, Monique, and Shannon spend the summer at a beach house on Hilton Head Island to honor Cely’s memory and make the most of their lives. They embrace new adventures, new friendships—and new men. Explicit descriptions of sex. 2007.
The Wisdom of Perversity
Rafael Yglesias
Best friends Brian and Jeff went their separate ways when they were both abused at age nine by Jeff’s cousin Richard Klein. Forty years later, Klein has been publicly accused of molestation, and the two must decide whether to speak out. Strong language, explicit descriptions of sex, and some violence. 2015.
