Friend or Fiction

by Abby Cooper

One creative middle-schooler discovers that the best friend a girl can have is the one she makes herself in this charming magical realism read.

Jade's life hasn't exactly been normal lately, especially since her dad's cancer diagnosis. Jade wishes her family could leave their no-name town in Colorado already--everybody else does sooner rather than later, including every best friend Jade's ever had. So she makes one up. In the pages of her notebook, she writes all about Zoe--the most amazing best friend anyone could dream of.

But when pretend Zoe appears in real life thanks to a magical experiment gone right, Jade isn't so sure if she likes sharing her imaginary friend with the real world. To keep her best friend (and even make some new ones), Jade learns how to cope with jealousy, that friends should let friends be true to themselves, and that maybe the perfect best friend doesn't exist after all.

• ISBN10: 1623541085
• ISBN13: 9781623541088
• Publish Date: 8 October 2019
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Charlesbridge Publishing,U.S.
• Imprint: Imagine Publishing, Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 272
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781623541088

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Living in a town, where people frequently come and go, left Jade feeling alone at a time, when she really needed a best friend. Her solution was to create a new bestie, Zoe, but when her new friend emerged from the page into real world, it prompted Jade to consider the complexities of friendship and the role writing took in her life.

• Pro: I could not resist Jade. I felt so much empathy towards her, as she battled her loneliness and sadness due to her father's recurrent cancer, but I also loved her introspection, her affection for her family, and her passion for writing.

• Pro: The entire concept of Jade's Oppservations was a win for me. I adored the idea of reflecting on the dual nature of things. These Oppservations were very keen and revealed a lot about Jade's emotions and worries.

• Pro: The focus on writing as an outlet and a craft was wonderful, and I also liked how this was used to help Jade reflect on her family, friendship, and feelings about everything was was going on in her life.

• Pro: Things had changed for the Levy family following her father's illness, but they still had so much love for one another, and it was a special treat being able to spend time with them all.

• Pro: Friendship was the central focus of this story, as Jade struggled with what it meant to be a friend, have a friend, and share a friend. The idea that you can be friends with someone, but they don't belong to you. It's definitely something that challenged me in my youth, and I felt it was addressed rather well in the story.

• Pro: The book leaned towards fun and upbeat, but having it set in an economically challenged town and containing a subplot of Jade's father's battle with cancer added a bit of weight. That said, it was handled beautifully and with sensitivity, and left me feeling rather happy and hopeful.

Overall: A lovely story of family and friendship with a touch of magic, that was thoughtful and heartwarming.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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