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Turning Points #1
Friends Forever
Romance or Friendship? You decide by picking one of two possible endings. One of the things Laura liked about Richie was that he could always see the other person's side. Even though he was the school's star quarterback, Richie didn't act like he was better than anyone else. Lots of girls would have jumped at the chance to date Richie, and Laura didn't want to lose him. but she didn't want to lose Katie, her best friend, either. And even though Katie wasn't part of the the football crowd, didn't Laura owe her best friend some kind of loyalty too? be sure not to miss Turning Points #2, Kerry's Dance, by M. L. Kennedy.
157 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 5, 1984
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June 30, 2020
FRIENDS FOREVER by Lisa Norby was published by Signet in June 1984 and was the first in a short-lived line (#1-12) aimed at teens titled
Turning Points
that allowed readers to choose one of two possible endings. (Of course, readers could read both endings, too, which is what I did.) It's an interesting concept, undoubtedly inspired by the popularity of the Choose Your Own Adventure books at that time. It's a thin novel, only 160 pages counting the two endings, a preview page of the next book in the series, and a 2-page survey at the back for the reader to fill out and mail in. (One of the survey questions asks readers to rate the other "young adult romance series" they have read. The options listed are: Sweet Dreams, First Love, Wildfire, Caprice, Turning Points, Two-By-Two, Follow Your Heart, Young Love and Make Your Dreams Come True -- which gives an indication of how saturated the market was in the mid-1980s and why Turning Points might not have succeeded, being lost in the pack.) The only reason that it took me so long to finish this book (8 days) is that I was reading it off and on whilst reading another book. Plus it's not much of a page-turner, although still enjoyable. I rate the book 3 out of 5 stars.
The story is about a high school freshman named Laura and her fellow classmate Katie. Laura and Katie are not interested in football, unlike the rest of their school, but Laura begins to fall for the school's star quarterback Richie. Unlike Richie, Laura and Katie are not popular in school, so there seems little chance that anything will come of it, but it turns out that Richie needs help in his French class and Laura is able to occasionally help him with his studies. Laura tries out for the cheerleading team (without telling Katie because she knows she wouldn't approve) and makes the team. Eventually it gets to the point where Laura has to choose between going to a horse show that Katie is performing in, to show her support to her friend (which Laura had previously promised to attend), or to do her duty as a cheerleader to help prepare the Homecoming dance and then go to the dance that evening with Richie. So, those are the two choices. I chose Ending #1 which was for Laura to go to the dance with Richie. Both endings offer Laura and Richie their HEA (or HFN at least, since we are talking about teenage love here), but it seems that Ending #2 (going to the horse show) actually offers the better outcome since it demonstrates her loyalty to her longtime friend and Richie is willing to wait for future dances with Laura instead. It turns out in both endings that Richie is not all that interested in being a football player and Laura is willing to stick by him anyway; unlike some of their classmates, she likes him regardless of his involvement in the popular sport.
This was a well-written novel that reminded me of being a high school student in the 1980s. (I was also a freshman in high school in 1984.) There is a bittersweet quality about Laura's friendship with the somewhat nerdy Katie because, despite the book's title, their days together are numbered regardless of the choices Laura makes. They may remain lifelong friends, but it will never again be like it was during their high school days, where they got together every Friday night to spend hours watching cable TV together on the couch, giggling at each other's jokes, just the two of them against the world. Even in the second ending, where Laura chooses to go to Katie's horse show instead of the Homecoming dance with Richie, we read: "Of course, she and Katie would still be friends. Nothing could ever change that. But it had been all too obvious lately that they were moving in different directions. Now, for the first time, Laura could face up to what that meant without feeling that either she or Katie was in the wrong." The novel taps into the pain involved with growing up and moving on from people and situations that were previously such a constant in one's life, but that eventually become more distant as time marches on.
The story is about a high school freshman named Laura and her fellow classmate Katie. Laura and Katie are not interested in football, unlike the rest of their school, but Laura begins to fall for the school's star quarterback Richie. Unlike Richie, Laura and Katie are not popular in school, so there seems little chance that anything will come of it, but it turns out that Richie needs help in his French class and Laura is able to occasionally help him with his studies. Laura tries out for the cheerleading team (without telling Katie because she knows she wouldn't approve) and makes the team. Eventually it gets to the point where Laura has to choose between going to a horse show that Katie is performing in, to show her support to her friend (which Laura had previously promised to attend), or to do her duty as a cheerleader to help prepare the Homecoming dance and then go to the dance that evening with Richie. So, those are the two choices. I chose Ending #1 which was for Laura to go to the dance with Richie. Both endings offer Laura and Richie their HEA (or HFN at least, since we are talking about teenage love here), but it seems that Ending #2 (going to the horse show) actually offers the better outcome since it demonstrates her loyalty to her longtime friend and Richie is willing to wait for future dances with Laura instead. It turns out in both endings that Richie is not all that interested in being a football player and Laura is willing to stick by him anyway; unlike some of their classmates, she likes him regardless of his involvement in the popular sport.
This was a well-written novel that reminded me of being a high school student in the 1980s. (I was also a freshman in high school in 1984.) There is a bittersweet quality about Laura's friendship with the somewhat nerdy Katie because, despite the book's title, their days together are numbered regardless of the choices Laura makes. They may remain lifelong friends, but it will never again be like it was during their high school days, where they got together every Friday night to spend hours watching cable TV together on the couch, giggling at each other's jokes, just the two of them against the world. Even in the second ending, where Laura chooses to go to Katie's horse show instead of the Homecoming dance with Richie, we read: "Of course, she and Katie would still be friends. Nothing could ever change that. But it had been all too obvious lately that they were moving in different directions. Now, for the first time, Laura could face up to what that meant without feeling that either she or Katie was in the wrong." The novel taps into the pain involved with growing up and moving on from people and situations that were previously such a constant in one's life, but that eventually become more distant as time marches on.
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