- Graphic Novels
- Ages 8–12
- Biography
Real Friends
A painfully recognisable graphic memoir about friendship groups, exclusion and trying to work out who your real friends are. It is especially valuable for readers navigating playground politics, social anxiety and friendship hurt.
- Best for8–12
- FormatGraphic
- Length224 pp
- Read aloud~1 hr45 min
The vibe
What it’s like.
Style
- Conversational
- Literary
Tone
- Warm
- Bittersweet
- Thought provoking
- Heartwarming
Themes
Experience meters
What’s it about?
The story.
Shannon and Adrienne have been best friends since they were little, but school changes everything. Adrienne becomes part of a popular group, and Shannon is left trying to understand the shifting rules of friendship: who is in, who is out, who is being kind and who is only pretending. As Shannon moves between loneliness, hope, jealousy and confusion, she begins to see that real friendship is not the same as being accepted by the loudest group. Real Friends is an autobiographical graphic memoir from Shannon Hale, illustrated with warmth and clarity by LeUyen Pham. It captures the specific ache of childhood friendship drama without minimising it. The visual format makes it highly accessible, while the emotional honesty gives parents, teachers and children a useful way into conversations about exclusion, anxiety, popularity and self-worth.
Fit check
Right for your child?
Where it lands by age
- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7
- 9
- 11
- 13
- Best fit · 8–12
- Read aloud · 7–12
- Independent · 8–12
Prose load
Light
Visual support
Very high
Reluctant-reader friendly
Very
Read-aloud quality
Workable
Works well for
- Gift-buying
- Reluctant readers
Preview before sharing if a child is sensitive to: bullying, mental health.
Bedtime suitability
3 / 5 · Workable
Sensitive-child
3 / 5 · Mostly fine
Graphic intensity
1 / 5 · None
Best for
- Friendship drama
- Graphic memoir
- School social dynamics
- Anxious reader
- Raina telgemeier adjacent
Avoid if
- Sensitive to friendship exclusion
- Wants escapist fantasy
- Needs low emotion reading
- Prefers action plot
Particularly good for children who are…
- Making friends
- Low self esteem
- Anxiety and worry
- Being bullied
- Reluctant reader
- Moving to secondary school
In the classroom
How it works in school.
A relatable graphic memoir about the ups and downs of childhood friendships — strong for empathy and talk about belonging, and a reluctant-reader favourite.
A book children love that happens to support school — never a stand-in for the texts a class is taught with. Reviewed for the classroom · June 2026.
Why it lands
Why they love it.
Why kids love it
The specific recognition is the friendship drift — best friend Adrienne moving into the popular group, Shannon trying to work out the new rules, who's in, who's out, who's only pretending to be kind. The graphic memoir that names a feeling every nine-year-old has had.
- Being understood finally
- Friendship and belonging
- Making a difference
- Proving yourself
Why parents love it
The graphic memoir for a child navigating playground politics — exclusion, anxiety, the slow drift of an old best friend into a different group. Hale captures the specific ache of childhood friendship drama without minimising it. The first of three; reliable starting point for the Friends trilogy.
- Conversation starter
- Great writing
- Cultural representation
- Beautiful illustrations
About the creators
About the creators.
If you liked this
Three ways out of this book.
If you liked this, try…
Lateral matches. Same shelf, different texture.
Where to go next…
Escalation reads — a step up in scale, silliness, or stakes.
Where you’ll find it
On these reading lists.
Buy or borrow
Pick up a copy.
- Bookshop.org ↗
- Waterstones ↗
- Amazon UK ↗
- Hive ↗
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