(published as Penelope Huber)

A fabulously realistic story of friendship and rivalry that will touch the hearts of all those who read it. Dorothy Butler

Finalist in NZ Post Children’s Book Awards 2000

Anna, almost fourteen, is invited to holiday with Polly’s family on their farm. Polly has another cherished friend who is manipulative and confusing, and tensions develop between the three. Thrown on her own resources, Anna tries to figure out what she’s worth, and to find in herself some of the qualities she has so admired in Polly. A novel about identity, making a stand and being tested.

Penelope comments:

Three’s a Crowd was the second novel for children that I wrote (the first is still in a drawer). Although it was based on a real holiday and an important friendship, as I wrote it, imagination took over and altered events and people until I can hardly remember now what had really happened and what was made up.