The Friendship War

Written by Andrew Clements, The Friendship War tells the story of how a middle-school friendship is affected by a button-collecting fad. The book was a nominee for the Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Award (2021) and the North Carolina Children’s Book Award (2022). American author Andrew Clements (1949-2019) penned several books for young readers, including the award-winning title Frindle (1996) and the Benjamin Pratt & the Keepers of the School series. He earned a master’s degree in education at National Louis University and went on to teach middle schoolers, and his students became the inspiration for many of his novels. He later transitioned to working in the business side of publishing, which led to the publication of Frindle and his decision to become a full-time author.

This guide follows the Random House Books for Young Readers 2019 edition of The Friendship War.

Plot Summary

The Friendship War opens with new sixth grader Grace as she visits her grandpa for a week over the summer vacation. Grace’s grandmother passed away a year ago, and as a way to deal with his grief, her grandpa bought an old, dilapidated mill building, which he intends to fix. While exploring the building, Grace finds several boxes of old-fashioned buttons that she wants to keep, and her grandpa has them all shipped to her so that she can add them to her large collection of interesting things.

At school, Grace’s history class starts studying the Industrial Revolution, and Grace realizes that her grandpa’s mill is from the same era. This prompts her to bring in some of the buttons. The other students in her class find the buttons fascinating, and their interest sparks a school-wide fad for trading, wearing, and making art with buttons. Though Grace wants to remain outside the phenomenon so that she can study it, she finds herself swept into the button craze as well. This development leads to a feud between Grace and her best friend, Ellie. Grace realizes that this conflict has been building for a long time and has only been brought to a head by the button fad.

One day, Grace and Ellie both want the same button, and both girls are dogged in their pursuit of it. Grace insinuates herself into the situation, and Ellie offers a sleepover if she gets the button. Grace ultimately gets the button, which causes Ellie to shun her out of anger because she didn’t get her way. Meanwhile, Grace becomes closer with another friend named Hank, and with his help, she starts to move past her fight with Ellie.

Tired of the button fad and the fight, Grace gives the button she won back to Ellie, who breaks it into pieces and returns it. Angry about the button and about Ellie’s mean behavior, Grace concocts a plan to get revenge by ripping up all the button jewelry that Ellie has made to trade. Grace also wants to end the button fad, so she spreads most of her less interesting buttons in the schoolyard, hoping that the ready availability of buttons will make people less interested in them. When this plan backfires, Grace is at a loss until she receives a letter from her grandpa. Inspired by her encouragement, he has started going through his late wife’s things, and Grace realizes that although Ellie has been mean to her, she herself has not been nice to her friend and has only made things worse. She apologizes to Ellie, who admits that she has been terrible, and the girls start to rebuild their friendship.

At an assembly, the school principal announces that buttons will no longer be allowed at school because so many were scattered in the schoolyard. The principal also announces that the police have opened an investigation into who used buttons as litter. Feeling sick, Grace rushes to the principal’s office to confess, but Ellie and Hank arrive to stick up for her and explain that Grace never meant to hurt anyone. The students offer to pay for the damages if Grace is not punished. Proud of the three, the principal agrees, and the children sell buttons on eBay to make money to pay for the damages. Grace’s friendships with both Ellie and Hank grow stronger, and while buttons are still traded by her classmates, the fad soon passes.