Elizabeth and Tara are opposites in many ways. Tara is outgoing and impulsive, and she wears unconventional clothes and streaks her hair purple. Elizabeth is shy and reserved and prefers jeans and loafers to anything chic. Tara has young, free-spirited parents who are just learning to become responsible adults and earn a steady income, and Elizabeth has older, upper-middleclass parents who make enough money to hire maids and gardeners and live in a sixhundred-thousand-dollar house. Early on in the novel, Tara appears to have a rather unstable home life and Elizabeth appears to have security and stability. Then the girls undergo a reversal of fortunes. Over the course of the novel, the girls' situations change drastically, and by the end of the story, the authors have defined the nature of true friendship.

The girls remain close despite their differences because they continue to show...