49 pages • 1 hour read
Andrew ClementsThe Friendship War
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Andrew Clements’s Realistic School Fiction
During his decades as an author, Andrew Clements penned over 80 books for young readers, many of which focus on the intricacies and struggles of being a middle school student and trying to navigate a larger world. Clements started reading at a young age, something that contributed to his ability to think like a writer. Following the encouragement of a high school English teacher, he studied writing in college, where he also taught summer creative writing workshops to high school students. As he watched his students grow as writers and as people, his exposure to teen life gave him unique insights into the struggles of adolescence, which he later used to craft books about authentic teenage experiences. He later went on to teach full-time, and his experience of daily middle school dramas offered additional fuel for ideas on how to tell his stories in meaningful yet entertaining ways.
Clements is best known for his novel Frindle, which tells the story of troublemaker Nicholas Allen’s endeavors to rename pens as “frindles.” As with many of Clements’s characters, Nicholas also represents the “every-kid” who plays pranks and finds lessons boring. Using these universal activities and feelings, Clements was able to create a story with widespread appeal. In addition, Nicholas’s plan creates a unique focus on learning about the art of linguistics and the science of etymology, or how words are formed over time. In this way, Frindle is both educational and entertaining, presenting an important concept in the frame of an interesting and exciting tale. The Friendship War does something similar while also offering a completely different perspective, for the protagonist, Grace, thinks of the world far more scientifically than the average middle schooler does, but this doesn’t stop her story from being a timeless tale of friendship, middle school politics, and lessons. Clements’s ability to write from vastly different perspectives and create high-quality stories speaks to his skills as an author and also shows that all experiences are valid.
Cultural Context: Trends
A trend is defined as a general movement, often toward something such as a preference or style. The button phenomenon in The Friendship War is an example of a trend—a general movement toward buttons as a preferred accessory or a stylistic choice. In the fashion world, trends often have five stages, and these are all reflected in the button trend at Grace’s middle school. The first step is the introduction of a new element or idea to a key group of people. In fashion, this element may come from a top company or designer. In the novel, the trend is initiated by both Grace and Ellie, with Ellie’s influence fueling a wider interest in buttons amongst the other students. The second phase is the rise of a trend, and this is seen in the novel when Grace discovers that the children on her bus are interested in trading buttons. It is also reflected when Ellie’s button jewelry becomes a new, exciting way to display buttons. Stage three occurs when a trend peaks, meaning it has reached a point at which it is easily accessible to a general audience. In the case of the buttons, this stage is somewhat glossed over, as buttons are already easily accessible. Instead, this stage reflects how the children find buttons to trade—an activity that they never bothered to pursue before. The peak stage has no definite length and is dependent on how consumers or traders react to the trend. The final two stages mark the point at which a trend declines and finally becomes obsolete. These stages are similarly glossed over in the novel, for the principal’s school-wide ban of buttons cuts the process short.
The stages above may apply to trends in any setting, but specifically within this novel, the button trend reacts differently because it is for a younger audience and is contained within the school setting. The buttons bear a resemblance to the “pog” trend from the 1990s. “Pog” stands for “passionfruit, orange, and guava,” the three fruit juices used to make the drink from which the pog game stemmed. Players would stack the bottlecaps face-down and drop objects on the pile, keeping any lids that landed face-up and continuing to play until there were no lids left in the game. The player with the most lids won, making the trend ideal for the fun and competitive setting of the school cafeteria. The buttons in The Friendship War are used as game pieces at certain points throughout the book, showing both how the buttons relate to pogs and also how buttons can have a myriad of uses that contribute to a longer peak stage.
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By Andrew Clements
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