Friends Forever? Charlie and Lola: My Best Best Friend by Lauren Child

LOLA AND LOTTA ARE BEST BEST FRIENDS.

THEY SHARE EVERYTHING.

LOTTA SAYS, "I DO NOT LIKE MY ORANGE TODAY. IT IS TOO ORANGE."

LOLA SAYS, "I DO NOT LIKE MY BANANA TODAY. IT IS TOO BANANA.

LET'S SWAP!"

A best best friend is one that will swap part of her lunch for yours, even though your reason is, well, tenuous to say the least. Lola and Lottie are that kind of friends. They watch the tadpole pond for changes every day. They take turns on the swings and hang their coats side by side in the coatroom.

But then a new girl, Evie, turns up at school. Lotta seems to be taken with Evie's NEW-ness. She shows her around the classroom. She tells her all about the tadpole pond. She points out a coathook for Evie right beside her own. She invites Evie to join her modelling clay house to her own. "You can come and visit..."she tells Lola.

Suddenly Lola is the odd girl out and she is downhearted.

"I DON'T THINK LOTTA LIKES ME ANYMORE," SHE TELLS HER BROTHER CHARLIE

"PERHAPS SHE WILL BE YOUR BEST FRIEND TOMORROW."

Charlie is older and wiser in the ways of friendship, but he's not content to let nature take its course. Perhaps he can find a way to get his little sister and her best friend back on track during recess the next day, and with his own best buddies at hand, Charlie knows just what to do to get Lotta's attention.

Lauren Child's Charlie and Lola: My Best, Best Friend (Charlie & Lola) (Penguin, 2011), done-up in a brand-new paperback easy-to-read edition, breaks no new ground in the area of girl world friendships, but it does put the ebb and flow of relationships into proportion in this easy-going spin-off for fans of the popular Playhouse Disney series.