Take Three Girls (again)

I have reviewed Take Three Girls before. I loved it when it first came out, and it didn't suffer from re-reading. Cath Crowley, Simmone Howell and Fiona Wood are all such gifted writers, this novel flies along. It was a deserved winner of last year's CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers.

When you're a teenager, the shape of your life is like a circle inside a triangle. The inner circle is your friendships, and outside that lie the three important elements of work (usually schoolwork, and decisions about career), love (figuring out who you're attracted to) and family (still your bedrock, even as you're beginning to separate from them).

This time I noticed that Kate's problems centre around work: her choice between music and medicine. Clem's problems mostly deal with love: her relationship with the incredibly unsuitable Stu. And Ady's problems lie at home, with her breaking-apart family. Each of the girls also deals with the other two points of the triangle, but the focus seemed clearer this time.

Again, I noted that the three girls, while dealing with adolescent problems, all behaved with astounding maturity and insight, certainly much more than I had at sixteen. One of my daughters is now two years older than the protagonists of Take Three Girls, and I just can't imagine her handling herself with the same degree of responsibility!