Reviewed by Tzipporah Tiffenright
Take Three Girls
by Simmone Howell, Cath Crowley, and Fiona Wood
Pan Macmillan Australia
ISBN: 9781742612744, Paperback, 29/08/2017, 448 pp, $18.99
Three girls, three writers, three quite different stories come together into one amazing stand-alone book that captures the heart, mind and emotions in a raw adventure about discovery. Discovery of self, definitely, but also things like true friends, loyalty, sexuality, and love. In its easy-to-relate telling, Take Three Girls grips you into its world, while raising interesting questions about adolescence and beyond.
The start of this book was one of the most unique I have read, and took me by complete surprise. The first few pages consisted of a post and comments full of mean gossip, an email from a principal to students’ parents’ and a lesson taken straight from a wellness booklet.
The book zones in on the lives of the three girls; Clem, who is giving up everything she loves for a boy, Kate, chasing music even with risks at every turn and Ady, struggling from afar while everyone thinks she’s an A lister. Each have a beautiful story of high and lows, then find each other in a moment of fate, working together to seek high-school justice.
Written in prose and first person, it switches between this and diary entries that they have written for class, both telling the next detail of the story. The authors have cleverly devised ways that they can connect each story, especially in one particular time when all three go to the same place and have different experiences there, the authors telling from each perspective the same time period; it was really interesting.
I loved Take Three Girls, with its cleverly devised plot, embarking in each girl’s day to day life in a thrilling story of romance, power and self-development. I recommend it for upper high school or mature year 8 or 9, as it does get quite deep at some parts and coarse language is used. This compelling story was truly fabulous and interesting read.
About the reviewer: Tzipporah Tiffenright, often known as Zippie, has loved writing and reading all her life. Libraries are a second home to her, along with Young People’s Theatre which houses her love for drama. She goes to a performing arts high school where she focuses on drama, but tap dances, plays piano, writes songs and sings. Zippie’s singing group, with her sister and mother, are called Songlarks and perform regularly. Follow Songlarks on Instagram for updates on gigs and performances @songlarks_
Zippie published her first book at 8, through her great uncle’s publishing company, The Maitland Press, and has published 3 more since, with her fifth book coming soon and another stand-alone being written. In year 7, she came first in her year for English, she loves writing book reviews and is thirteen years old. Recently, she has launched her new student newsletter.