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...."

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.

Rachel is Stephanie's best friend. Since second grade, they've shared secrets, good and bad. Now in seventh grade, Alison moves into the neighborhood. Stephanie hopes all three of them can be best friends, because Stephanie really likes Alison. But it looks as if it's going to be a case of two's company and three's a crowd. Can the girls' friendship be saved?

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

A pioneer of books for young adults and the author of classics such as Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, the Fudge series, and many others, Judy Blume has always had the uncanny ability to capture the embarrassments and worries of growing up, striking comforting chords with readers of all ages.