On the Same Page | The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls | Claire Legrand

The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls • Claire Legrand

In celebration of our everlasting love of middle grade, as well as the Kids Author Carnival we’ll all be volunteering at this Book Expo weekend, our May book was one I’ve been looking forward to for a while: THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS by Claire Legrand. I’m always up for some MG goodness, especially when it involves one of my very favorite things to read about: friendship. Particularly between a boy and a girl. My OTP of this would obviously be Harry and Hermione (forget that nonsense that JK was spouting a while ago). I always love reading about this, and it always makes me so happy when the friendship is unencumbered by romance, and I thought that Victoria and Lawrence from THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS wound up having a pretty strong friendship, even if it didn’t seem to start out that way.

© Sarah Watts

So, in THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, Victoria and Lawrence are each other’s best and only friends. Victoria is a Type A, bossypants, over-achiever, perfectionist, mini-nag. She’s obsessed with being clean, proper, and the top of her class. Lawrence is a piano prodigy who wears frumpy clothes, daydreams, excels in music class  but not many others, and has a skunk stripe of gray hair on the top of his head. They are opposites in many ways, and often wind up doing things simply because Victoria demands that they must. Lawrence follows Victoria’s lead, but also sticks to his own guns too, especially when his music is on the line, despite basically EVERYONE–his parents, Victoria–thinking that playing music is a waste of time.

When Lawrence goes missing, Victoria finds herself at a loss. Not being a very emotional sort, Victoria tackles the problem with as much pragmatism as one can tackle the mysterious disappearance of several children around town and the very strange, creepy, wooden behavior of some of the adults. Her enterprising, ballsy investigating lands her right where she suspected Lawrence would be all along: The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls.

The thing I loved the most about Victoria and Lawrence’s relationship is that you could see how much their friendship had been affecting one another the further the book progressed. When things first started, I kind of felt bad for Lawrence because Victoria was SOOOOO BOSSY and dismissive of him and his music. But once Victoria is also at the Home and sees Lawrence unhappy with the other children, the importance of her friendship with Lawrence comes out more strongly and the ways that he has influenced her during their friendship play an important part in her motivations and the success of her plans. It was honestly the only thing that gave me warm fuzzies because THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS is not that kind of book.

It’s always so refreshing to read about a relationship between a guy and a girl that isn’t a romance waiting to happen. I love a romance based in friendship A LOT. Like, A BIG LOT. Those kinds of relationships are so much more satisfying and lasting. But I find that, the more I read, the more I appreciate a solid friendship between people of the opposite sex. In real life, there’s that idea that a guy and a girl can never be just friends because one or the other always wants to be something more. That plays out in books enough, so encountering a story that disproves that statement is something I always cherish. Because I’ve had both kinds of relationships, so I know that they’re both real.

One of the greatest examples of this kind of friendship is obviously Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. They are supportive, loyal, devoted, caring, do-anything-for-you friends. They share secrets, face danger and death together, and show emotions that they keep hidden from others. Truly, it doesn’t get better than these two.

Another great friendship that I wish more people knew about? Jeffrey Tifton and Skye Penderwick from the Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall. THESE TWO. Jeffrey is just so freaking sweet and friendly and Skye is loud and opinionated and kind of brash for a 12 year old. But they are just such great friends even though they are very different. I LOVE THEM and wish more people read their books.

Do you guys have any favorite friendships from MGs? Share! I want to read more! In the meantime, check out Brittany and Alyssa‘s posts on THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS by Claire Legrand!