The Girls

A beautiful celebration of female friendship as we see four girls—best friends—support each other through hardships and celebrate each others successes from childhood and into adulthood. One of them ends up in a relationship with another woman; we also see all four friends marching together in a Pride parade as they “always took pride in their friendship.” After so many children’s books in which the non-queer characters tease or don’t understand the queer character, this image of active and unconditional support by the friends is a breath of fresh air. Two of the girls are White; the queer one is Black; the fourth is South Asian. I’m tagging this “Allies (audience)” since it does speak to allies—but it doesn’t speak only to them. Queer girls themselves should appreciate its vision of allyship, even as all girls should value the book’s vision of friendship across various aspects of difference. Also available in Spanish as Amigas.