Sequel to ‘Real Friends’ Announced
The award-winning graphic memoir Real Friends came out last spring from First Second. Shannon Hale tells a heart-wrenching story of seeking popularity in grade school, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. It’s about the hard work of figuring out what friendship means and the loneliness of feeling on the outs.
Now the sequel, Best Friends, has been announced, and Romper posted this cover.
The book has the same creative team and will be released August 27, 2019. Said Hale in the linked article, “I couldn’t stop thinking about the next — how as I got a little older, the rules of friendship seemed to change, and I was always trying to guess what those rules were and keep up.
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“I can’t wait to share this story with my now-11-year-old daughter and with everyone else too. There’s real comfort in reading about other people’s highs and lows, to know that they struggled too, we’re not alone, and have hope that we’ll get through it.”
Filed under: Graphic Novels, News

About Johanna
Johanna Draper Carlson has been reviewing comics for over 20 years. She manages ComicsWorthReading.com, the longest-running independent review site online that covers all genres of comic books, graphic novels, and manga. She has an MA in popular culture, studying online fandom, and was previously, among many other things, webmaster for DC Comics. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
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My students are excited!
I read Real Friends and it was very heart-warming and it touched me so much! I can’t wait to read the next one!