The Friendship Riddle: 07/17/16

The Friendship Riddle by Megan Frazer Blakemore is the story of a long forgotten scavenger hunt rediscovered by accident. Ruth Mudd-O'Flaherty is pretty much a loner at school, one of only two kids with same sex parents. She has two mothers and her ex-best-friend, Charlotte, has two fathers.

Charlotte has broken off their friendship because she feels like it's been forced by circumstances. She feels like their parents have forced them together into a friendship and she wants to go out on her own and make different friends.

Ruth, though hurt, also agrees with Charlotte. So she tries to play it cool as a lone wolf at the school now. She can't completely cut herself off from Charlotte as she and her fathers live in an apartment over the library.

Anyway, it's in the middle of all these hurt feelings that Ruth finds a clue in an old book. It's the distraction she so desperately needs and it takes her on a journey through her small town and it's history.

Typically in these sorts of treasure hunts, the clues, even when long forgotten, end up being found in order and where they were originally left. Also, frustratingly, the hunt, though it goes all over the place, usually ends up right at the beginning. Here, though, none of that is true. A big part of this book is the figuring out of how many clues there are, what order they go in, what they mean as a whole, and ultimately who left them.

It was also nice to see Ruth and Charlotte patch up their friendship into something more genuine through their collaboration on the treasure hunt. Charlotte with her easy access to the library had also found a clue and was on her own way through the puzzle. Better yet, it was seeing the girls make a wider range of friends, all who were interested in solving this old puzzle.

Five stars

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