Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper - ADVISABLE

Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper, 263 pages. Charlesbridge, OCT 2019.  $17.

Content: G 

BUYING ADVISORY: EL – ADVISABLE, MS - OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Jade’s best friend recently moved away, but it really doesn’t matter because they had a fight before she left anyway.  Now Jade occupies her time with writing stories about an imaginary best friend, Zoe, who does everything with Jade and they get along perfectly.  At night she comes home and shares her stories with her Dad who is battling cancer. Then one day a boy in her school “borrows” Jade’s notebook of Zoe stories and promises her a big surprise in return.  Monday morning who should be at Jade’s school – a girl named Zoe who looks like, sounds like, and acts like the Zoe Abby created.  Everything seems to be perfect, until it isn’t.  What does it mean to be best friends anyway?

Cooper’s book has a lot to recommend it, especially taking a hard look at what it means to be a friend or a best friend.  About letting others be who they are, not what you want them to be.  Or letting go of your assumptions about the people around you whom you have slotted into little boxes. A nice slice of your students should enjoy this.

Cindy, Library Teacher, MLS