Best Friends

Suzie Green has only dreamed of having a best friend. Someone to vent to and giggle with―and someone to help her face the Select Seven at school every day. Those girls are boy crazy, they talk in codes, and they call Suzie “teacher’s pet.” It’s not easy being a teacher’s kid! And it’s not easy being eleven, going on twelve, without a best friend. Then Co Co Langdon moves in next door. Suzie has never met anyone like Co Co. She’s from France and has traveled all over the world. And she’s never been to school, having been tutored all her life. But now that Co Co is in America, she will go to school for the very first time. And Suzie will finally have a best friend by her side! First published in 1955, Best Friends follows two girls through one unforgettable school year as they take on mean girls, a cranky neighbor, boys, and the search for a missing neighborhood dog. In the end, they’ll find out what it truly means to be best friends.

Like Co Co in Best Friends, Mary Bard moved frequently as a child due to her father’s job. She attended kindergarten in Mexico City, first grade in New York, and second grade in Colorado. Later, she went to college at the University of Washington and eventually settled with her family in the Seattle area. Best Friends is the first of three novels about Suzie and Co Co, which were published through the 1950s and ’60s. Bard also wrote three autobiographical works for adults: Just Be Yourself, The Doctor Wears Three Faces, and Forty Odd.

Nancy Pearl is a librarian and lifelong reader. She regularly comments on books on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. Her books include 2003’s Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; 2005’s More Book Lust: 1,000 New Reading Recommendations for Every Mood, Moment, and Reason; 2007’s Book Crush: For Kids and Teens; Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment, and Interest; and 2010’s Book Lust To Go: Recommended Reading for Travelers, Vagabonds, and Dreamers. Among her many awards and honors are the 2011 Librarian of the Year Award from Library Journal, the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the 2010 Margaret E. Monroe Award from the Reference and User Services Association of the American Library Association, and the 2004 Women’s National Book Association Award.