Just as Long as We're Together ANNOTATION
Stephanie's relationship with her best friend, Rachel, changes during her first year in junior high as she tries to conceal a family problem and meets a new girl from California.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Just As Long As We're Together
Rachel is Stephanie's best friend. Since the second grade they have shared all their secrets, good and bad. So when Alison moves in, Stephanie hopes that the three of them can be best friends because Stephanie really likes Alison. After all, they have even more to share now, including seventh grade and Jeremy Dragon, the cutest boy in junior high.
Even though the three of them live in a quiet Connecticut neighborhood, there's a lot going on in their lives. Stephanie wishes her father didn't have to work so far from home and she worries that Rachel's talents will get in the way of their friendship. Rachel and Alison have to deal with the changes in their own lives, yet Stephanie is sure everything will work out fine—"just as long as we're together...."
FROM THE CRITICS
Josephine Humphreys
''Just as Long as We're Together'' looks at first like a Blume medley, with strains of earlier stories wound together. There are no new, big issues here; the main theme is friendship -how it is tested and how it endures. There is a muted, mellow tone to the story, and Blume fans looking for ''the good parts'' to dogear will find few. They may even get the feeling they have read this book before....The narrative tone is flat and defensive, minimizing or deflecting emotion in the same way that cartoons do.
--New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Stephanie, 12, is into ``hunks'' even though she's never met one herself. But when she starts seventh grade and finds out that she and her best friend, Rachel, aren't in any of the same classes except gym, Stephanie has more to worry about than boys. A new girl, Alison, moves in; she's a welcome new friend, but her presence alters the relationship between Steph and Rachel. For the first time, Rachel has secrets from Steph. But worse, Stephanie accidently learns that her father isn't in California on business, but that her parents have separated, and that her father has a girlfriend. She even suspects her mother of having a ``fling.'' The relationships within the storyamong the three friends, and between Steph and her parentsare complicated, and Blume handles this aspect realistically and with great ease. The plot resolution, though carefully handled, is curiously flat. Despite this weakness, the story is lively, moves quickly, and captures the nutty, poignant world of very young teenagers. Ages 10-13. (September)
School Library Journal
Gr 5-7 Blume once again chronicles the customs, mores, and lifestyle of preteen girls. This first-person narrative touches on many themes found in her previous novels: friendship, emerging sexuality, body weight, the family, menstruation. The freshness and intimacy of 13-year-old Stephanie Hirsch's account infuse those themes with originality. Stephanie enters seventh grade armed with innate optimism, two best friends, and a supportive mom. She gradually assimilates the devastating news of her parents' separation, endures the pain of an all-out fight with her oldest best friend, and comforts her young brother through nightmares of nuclear war. The Blume trademarks of realistic dialogue, funny non sequiturs, and forthright misinformation (gullible Stephanie is told by her friend that hairy legs on a boy indicate sexual experience) are much in evidence. The inviting jacket design, showing the three friends in a fit of giggles, perfectly evokes the upbeat story. Susan H. Patron, Los Angeles Public Library
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