The Friendship Riddle by Megan Frazer Blakemore (review)

Middle-schooler Ruth is okay with being a lone wolf now that former best friend Charlotte has ditched her for the popular mean girl Melinda; after all, Ruth still has her two mothers, Mom and Mum, and her beloved fantasy books about a halfgirl/half-elf knight, Taryn Greenbottom. When Ruth discovers an envelope with a mysterious message hidden in a library book, she’s certain it’s the start of her own quest in her small Maine town; a budding friendship brings bold, iconoclastic Lena in on the sleuthing as well. Meanwhile, Ruth is also studying for the school spelling bee with her sweet (and sweet on her) classmate, Coco (a nickname for Christopher), and Coco and his sci-fi-loving pals soon expand the group of questers. Will Ruth win the spelling bee, finish the quest, and win back Charlotte’s friendship? The answers are more complex than one might expect, and that is one of the book’s strengths. The multiple threads are adroitly handled by Blakemore, and readers who sign on for the quest story may be surprisingly absorbed by the nuanced portrait of a (mostly) happily introverted middle-schooler as well. Melinda is a fairly twodimensional villain, but Charlotte’s and Ruth’s dynamics and Ruth’s relationships with her moms are refreshingly complicated, and the book ends without things being completely patched up between the former friends. Kids who like Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer (BCCB 7/04) or Raskin’s The Westing Game (BCCB 9/78) will enjoy this, and fantasy fans will find a comrade in Ruth as well.