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Title: Best Friends for Never
Author: Adrienne Maria Vrettos
Narrator: Emily Eiden
Format: Unabridged
Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
Language: English
Release date: 05-10-16
Publisher: Scholastic Audio
Ratings: 5 of 5 out of 5 votes
Genres: Kids, Ages 8-10
Publisher's Summary:
When a friendship pact goes magically awry, 11-year-old Hattie must figure out how to make amends.
After Hattie and her three best friends watch one of their classmates get publicly defriended in the school cafeteria, they make a loyalty pact promising never to mistreat each other. But after Hattie unwittingly breaks the pact, her friends begin ignoring her. In fact they literally don't even know who she is anymore! Can Hattie figure out how to break the spell and make things right again?
Acclaimed author Adrienne Vrettos brings poignancy and gentle humor to this magical story of friendship and loyalty.
Members Reviews:
A Fun, Funny Read
This witty, insightful, and at times laugh-out-loud funny novel has a lot of the qualities you for in a good friend. It's smart, charming, fun to spend time with, and it makes you think. I loved all the characters, from the narrator--a charmingly self-aware geek named Hattie who still has a lot to learn about being true to herself--to her vividly drawn friends both new and old, to her parents, who were believable and appealing. The magic in this story allows the author to explore universal truths with gentle humor and grace. She's done a great job creating characters and a story that will appeal to middle grade readers (and some of the adults who like to read, and talk about books, with this audience). Hattie and company stayed with me long after I finished the last chapter. I still find myself smiling over funny lines that replay in my head, and I can't wait for the next book in what I very much hope will become a series.
Read for Mother Daughter Book Club
It was a fun story with some good teaching themes.
Friendship
YA readers will recognize the cast of charismatic characters who roam the middle school halls and the neighborhoods of small town Trepan Grove. Hattie moves to the town from Brooklyn, New York during the summer and becomes friends with a group of girls with whom sheâs trying desperately to fit in. If that means repressing her love of reading fantasy and wearing cute cat T-shirts, itâs totally worth it. Almost totally. She misses her best friend in Brooklyn and their nerdy common interests.
After witnessing a classmate endure a public, humiliating defriending in the school cafeteria one day, Hattie wonders if her tenuous, new friendships are safe. She devises a loyalty pact designed to assure that the friends will never mistreat each other. The four girls sign.
Then, Hattie unwittingly breaks the pact. Consequences are immediate, and the next months become a nightmare journey down a rabbit hole, as she seeks a way to correct her mistake and regain her friendships. And, as does Alice in Wonderland, Hattie runs into obstacles that seem unbeatable and finds help from improbable sources.
This reviewer is on the far downside of being a YA reader, but I was enchanted by this story. Iâd like to visit the little New England town of Trepan Grove, meet Hattieâs group of âmiddle popularâ girls, and see the attic repository of the townâs historical society books and documents. Iâm not too much of an old dog to appreciate being reminded of the lesson Hattie learned, either.
The authorâs delve into a bit of fantasy is a clever way to obviate her message without preaching. The inviting, realistic characters and relationships will have kids appreciating their own positions in their various micro societies.
