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Eleven-year-old Franny Davis and her best friend share school and family problems in this realistic, often humorous story set in New York's Greenwich Village.
1966 Newbery Honor Book Notable Children's Books of 1965 (ALA)
Children's Books of 1965 (Library of Congress)
"City" Books of the Sixties (The Instructor)
Eleven-year-old Franny Davis and her best friend share school and family problems in this realistic, often humorous story set in New York's Greenwich Village. "Warm, convincing, and especially valuable for its urban background."--The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. 1966 Newbery Honor Book. 1965 ALA Notable Children's Book.
Wishing it were cooler and wishing she weren't hungry, Franny Davis stood in line at the school cafeteria door, fingering the lunch pass in her sweater pocket. It was too warm today for her red sweater, but she was wearing it anyway, and though it was not really one of those wonderful bulky sweaters you saw in the advertisements, it looked like one. Sort of. Anyway, it was the only piece of clothing she owned that she liked. Her skirt was much mended and let down now as far as it was going to go. Of course all the girls were wearing short skirts these days, but there was a difference between short skirts that were bought that way -- like the one Lila Wembleton had on -- and short skirts that had gotten that way. You wouldn't think the difference would show, but somehow it did.
She got inside the door, showed her ticket to the teacher at the desk there, who glanced at it, then nodded and smiled encouragingly at Franny.
As if to make up for something, Franny thought touchily. Still, she smiled back. Every day she thought how nice it would be to say to that teacher, "Here, please give this to some child who needs it" -- handing the ticket over with a gracious smile. "I find I am not in the least hungry today." Or "I find I won't be needing this anymore." But she never did hand it over with a gracious smile, because by noontime she was in the least hungry. Every noontime.
Soup (vegetable), sandwich (peanut butter), jello (lime), cookie (oatmeal), and milk. She went along the line, only half hearing the din and clatter of the vast room.
What she would have liked was to carry her lunch to school. Best of all, in a littlelunch box with scenes painted on it. But she would have settled for a paper bag. justso she carried it. Lila Wembleton had a plastic lunch box woven to look like a basket. It had shells pasted on it and was blue. Lila never had a free lunch pass.
Franny and her twin brother Jim nearly always had them, and it didn't bother Jim at all. He said it didn't bother him, and Jim usually said what he meant. He also said some things he didn't mean. Franny could see him now in a far comer of the cafe-. teria, standing at a table talking to a bunch of his friends, who were looking up at him and laughing. Through the noise of the lunch hour Franny couldn't make out a word, but she knew he'd be telling some wildness that people -- especially boys -- always half believed. Probably because they wanted to. Jim's stories were gory most of the time, full of sinister grown-ups who got duped and outwitted by boys.
But he doesn't mind anything, Franny thought now, standing motionless, tray in hand. Not the free lunch ticket or his awful-looking clothes or the way Papa never keeps a job or anything.
I don't understand boys, Franny thought to herself, and started nervously as a boy's voice behind her said, "Move on, dopus. You wanna block the whole line?"
Franny moved off without looking back. She searched for a place to sit.
"Franny! Franny! Over here!"
Franny smiled with relief and went to sit beside Simone Orgella.
"Oh, my," said Simone, giving a great happy sigh and waving her slender arms. "Did you see that pretty new art teacher we have? Her name is Miss Rose. Do you have her?'.'
"I don't get art until next week."
"Franny, she's as pretty as a -- as a rose. She's so pretty she makes my head ache."
Franny nodded. Whenever Simone saw something she found very beautiful, she got a headache, or a stomachache. It was a peculiar way to be, but Simone's way just the same.
"Do you suppose her first name could be Rose too?" Simone said. "Rose Rose. That would be nice."
"How about Rosie?"
Simone ignored that. "What I want is for everyone to be pretty, and I only want to look at pretty things and pretty people, all the time."
"I know," said Franny. "You've already said."
Simone herself was pretty. Very. She had a flyaway fragile air and the most wonderful eyes Franny had ever seen. Simone had seven brothers and sisters, a grandmother, and her parents, and they all had these dark sparkling eyes with long fringy lashes black as soot. Franny, who allowed herself to dream impossible things, sometimes dreamed that her own eyes had suddenly become heavily blackly fringed and dark as coffee. She had another dream about becoming a mermaid. When she'd been smaller, she'd really thought there might just be a way to do it, if she could find the right spell to say, encounter the right witch. Now she only thought how marvelous it would be, the way Simone thought about becoming a child TV actress.
"My cousin Francisco is coming up from San Juan to stay with us," said Simone, nibbling at her cookie, taking a long time with it. "Tomorrow he gets here!'
Golly, thought Franny. I wonder where he's going to sleep. She didn't ask. People in this neighborhood always found room for another relative, another baby.
"What I think," she said to Simone, "is why leave San Juan? I mean, if it's as beautiful as you say and all."
"Oh, it is," said Simone, who'd been born in Manhattan and never been out of it. "Gorgeous. The sun shines all the time, and you can swim in the ocean every day of the year, and they have flowers everywhere. Flowers big as a baby's head."
"Then why leave?" Franny insisted.
"Francisco says he wants to get ahead."
"Can't he get ahead in San Juan?"
Simone moved restlessly. "Franny, do you always have to be so picky?"
"I wasn't being picky, I was only asking --"
The Noonday Friends. Copyright © by Mary Stolz. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.xmiw
Posted January 11, 2011
I remember getting this book as a present from my mom...it was such a treat, and I remember reading it over and over again...I was 10 at the time and couldn't imagine a better written book..I will always treasure that memory and love my mom even more for giving me this book to read on one rainy Saturday!
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Posted September 21, 2002
I read this book when I was around Franny's age, eleven years old. I'm 34 now, but I never forgot how much it affected me. It is such a sensitive, touching, funny portrayal of kids and their families living less-than-perfect lives. After reading this, real kids whose families are poor will really relate to its bittersweet feelings of longing, and kids from more affluent families will understand the need for compassion for the tribulations of others. This is a beautifully written story that stays with you. READ IT!
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Posted February 1, 2001
Two diffrent girl friends that live their lives so diffrently that they end up fighting.
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Posted March 7, 2009
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
Eleven-year-old Franny Davis and her best friend share school and family problems in this realistic, often humorous story set in New York's Greenwich Village.
1966 Newbery Honor Book Notable Children's Books of 1965 (ALA)
Children's Books of 1965 (Library of Congress)
"City" Books of the Sixties (The Instructor)
Eleven-year-old Franny Davis and her best friend ...