But, yeah, this was extremely hard to write. As an adult, I wanted to show the truth of how that felt to readers, so hopefully those kids like me won’t feel alone. Hale: I didn’t find out I had OCD till I was an adult, and then it was like, “Ohhhhh, so that’s what was going on!” I wish I’d known at the time so I wasn’t hating myself for feelings and thoughts I couldn’t control. How difficult was it to write about these experiences as an adult? As a mother of an OCD child, I could definitely relate to the character’s episodes of anxiety and the situations she found herself in.
Powell: There are some pretty heavy moments in dealing with Little Shannon’s neuroses. She starts off the year determined to become the kind of person who she thinks would feel happy, but it doesn’t go as planned. She’s figured out how to handle a middle school schedule and has more friends than ever, but she feels pretty bad most of the time and doesn’t know why. Friends Forever takes place entirely in eighth grade, and LS feels like she should be doing great. She’s little me, so my editor Connie and I started to call her Little Shannon or LS. Shannon Hale: Well, I wouldn’t call her fictional. Can you talk about where we find the fictional Shannon in this third book? Nancy Powell: Shannon, the first two books explored the trials and tribulations of friendship through elementary and middle school. I sat down with the creative team behind Friends Forever to talk about their middle school experiences, and what advice they would give to their eighth grade selves. Friends Forever creators, Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham. In Friends Forever, Little Shannon strikes out on her own path for eighth grade, but not without some internal struggle and naysaying. At the conclusion of Best Friends, Little Shannon is a member of the popular crowd, but she questions her own self worth in the context of her friendship circle. If there was only one book I could share with my own eighth grader, Friends Forever would be it.įriends Forever is the duo’s third book of a three-part graphic memoir. In Friends Forever, Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham capture that struggle with their trademark insight and compassion. There is also anxiety for the social and performative expectations each must face, whether it be schoolwork, surviving popularity contests, or worries about a future beyond middle school. On the one hand, eighth graders are the privileged upper class that other middle schoolers look up to. Cover Photo courtesy of First Second Books.Įighth grade is a scary time for any tween.
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