The girls

An apple tree is the connecting image that runs through the story of four girls who become lifelong friends. Fair-skinned, red-headed Lottie, the adventurer, finds the tree first. Leela, who appears to be South Asian based on her later wedding attire, declares that the tree must be their secret meeting place. Sasha, with brown skin and dark curly hair, is always first on the scene when someone is hurt. Lastly there is blonde Alice, the born performer. The girls, all quite different, share their secrets, dreams, worries, and schemes beneath the tree. The soft, warm illustrations provide a panorama of their growth, through successes, challenges, and disagreements, but always their friendship is a constant. The four find love, experience loss, and build adult accomplishments with jobs and families. They participate in a Pride parade, showing support for one of the girls and her partner. While the book goes beyond the bounds of children's direct experience, its girl power message presents a reassuring view that friendships can grow, change, and shelter, just like the group's favorite tree.--Lucinda Whitehurst Copyright 2019 Booklist

A picture-book affirmation of female friendship.Four girlsSasha, Lottie, Alice, and Leelabecome friends in childhood. They designate an apple tree their Secret Meeting Place, and here they play and form fast bonds that sustain them through the trials, tribulations, and triumphs that mark their lives. Throughout, the text offers general statements about those life events while cheery, colorful, cartoon-style illustrations provide specificity. For example, above text that reads, "They worked hard," an accompanying illustration shows Alice in a cap and gown, jumping for joy while holding a diploma. Another scene says the girls "always took pride in their friendship" and shows them with their arms about one another and raising rainbow flags aloft as they march in a queer pride parade. This pictorial reference to queerness is extended in Sasha's subplot, when she is depicted as an adult with her arm around another woman as they gaze at a little house. Ultimately, this could read like an aspirational vision of friendship for girls, but it will likely also find a readership among women who see their own bonds reflected. Sasha appears black, with brown skin and afro-puffs; Lottie and Alice both present white; and Leela is South Asian, with brown skin and straight, black hair. Although the ostensible audience is children, this book also has gift potential among adult women.A veritable gal-entine. (Picture book. 5-8, adult) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.