7 of the Best Girl Packs in YA

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
The original girl pack, the four March sisters looked out for one another while their father was at war, whether by raising money for the family or staging one of Jo’s plays to amuse Marmee and the neighbors. One of the most fascinating aspects of these sisters’ bond was the ways different pairs interacted with each other: Jo and Meg get to do the more “adult” things like attending parties, though Amy gets more enjoyment reliving the festivities with Meg than Jo has actually going; Jo and Amy are always at each other’s throats, but Jo dotes on sweet, meek Beth. But even when petty squabbles temporarily divided them, illness, death, and love united them.

The Bermudez Triangle, by Maureen Johnson
Often in a group of three friends, one invariably feels left out. But Johnson turns that trope on its ear with “the Bermudez Triangle”: Nina Bermudez and her two best friends, Mel and Avery. When Nina goes abroad for ten short weeks one summer, she returns to find Avery and Mel are together—or at least trying to figure out dating. It’s something none of them expected, and puts Nina in a unique third-wheel position. How do you redefine your friendship when it has changed so drastically?

The Circle of Magic series, by Tamora Pierce
Technically, this girl pack includes a boy: the foursome in Pierce’s fantasy series include noble orphan Sandry, who can manipulate yarn and fabric; Daja, an outcast whose calling lays in metalcraft; Briar, a thief with an affinity for plants; and Tris, who can tap into the weather but is a long way from being able to control it. When the four misfits are trapped underground, Sandry weaves their magics together in a last-ditch effort to save them—ultimately bonding their emotions and some of their magics, and keeping them bonded even through their subsequent mage training and travels all across the world.

The Year of Secret Assignments, by Jaclyn Moriarty
While the Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program is designed to bring together the aforementioned boys’ and girls’ schools, the events of that momentous school year actually strengthen Cassie, Lydia, and Emily’s friendship. At first, each girl seems to have found her match in her male pen pal—new partners in crime and potential love interests. But when Cassie’s pen pal does the unimaginable, Emily and Lydia realize they’ve become too wrapped up in their correspondences to pay attention to their friend. With some help from their new pen pals, they enact the ultimate revenge plot.

Reunited, by Hilary Weisman Graham
Alice, Summer, and Tiernan spent all of middle school united by their love for the rock band Level3. But as the band members went their separate ways, so did the girls, spending high school alternately on the honors track, at the popular table, or not even bothering to show up. But the summer before college, the girls discover Level3 is doing a one-night-only reunion concert. Of course they have to drive 2,000 miles cross country to be there for the historic event…and, along the way, figure out why they grew apart and what was actually keeping them together.

Wither, by Lauren DeStefano
At the start of DeStefano’s dystopian novel—set in a world where genetic engineering has led to a plague that kills women at 20 and men at 25—16-year-old Rhine is married off to architect Linden Ashby…along with two other girls, Jenna and Cecily. These sister-wives join Linden’s ailing 20-year-old wife Rose in his household, constantly in competition with one another to become the privileged “First Wife.” But as their shortened lives spin out, Rhine develops a tenuous trust in her former rivals, realizing they are her only real support in the household.

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, by Ann Brashares
Just as you can’t have a list of girl packs without the March sisters, I’d be equally remiss to leave out classic foursome Carmen, Lena, Bridget, and Tibby. Even before they find a magical pair of pants that fits all of them, they’re already linked by their close birthdays and their mothers’ friendships and yoga rituals. But once the pants come into their lives, they ensure the girls stay connected all summer, even as they encounter first love, far too many disappointments, and the ghosts of their past. Though the pants ultimately get lost, and one of the girls doesn’t live to see their last summer together, their experiences are the stuff of legend.