It's no surprise that I love a little magic in my middle grade, along with a heaping side of real-life issues and best friend goals. And Friend or Fiction by @_acoops_ was all of those things and more. In a small town people can't seem to stick around in, Jade hopes for a miracle and realizes an imaginary friend into a real one. This book is perfect for a reader who is transitioning from chapter books to longer middle grade. A sad but sweet and spellbinding story worth sharing.

This is a pretty short book, a little less than 300 pages. It's a MG and those usually make for some shorter stories, especially the more contemporary ones. And Friend or Fiction reads as a contemporary in my opinion! There is a magical realism element in the story that is very important, but before and even after that happens it all feels very contemporary.

I listened to the audiobook for this one and was pretty much right away sucked into the story. We follow Jade, who lives in a small town in Colorado. Everyone seems to move from there all the time which makes it hard on her to find and keep a best friend. After hearing upsetting news about her dad's health and finding out her current best friend isn't that good of a friend either she stops trying. And instead she makes up her own best friend Zoe in her notebook, she writes about all the adventures they go on and fun days they have.

It was very interesting to see Jade cope with everything her family has been going through. She tries to not be a bother for her parents, to keep her dad's spirits up and to just take care of her own problems. While she wasn't dealing with her problems in the most healthy way, I do think it was a very accurate depiction of a young girl in this situation. It made it very real for me and I felt for Jade right away.

Jade made some decisions that weren't necessarily the best ones she could make, or ones I'd personally make. But it did make for a great way to show her growth and developments. I also think it was very realistic. And I think a lot of kids could learn something about making friends and friendships from this novel.

We have our main character Jade, like I said I think she can be very relatable for kids and I really enjoyed reading about her. She went through a great development and her story brought tears to my eyes more than once.

The other characters are mostly side characters. We read about Zoe, Jade's fictive friend, who doesn't really has a personality if I'm being honest. I didn't think she brought that much to the story herself, and she was mostly used for Jade's plot.

We also read about Jade's family, I especially loved her dad. I laughed out loud multiple times in regards to her family. But they were also present for some of the moments were I shed some tears haha. A very enjoyable and supportive family to read about, I wish we saw that in YA books ;) The last important character is Clue. I don't want to say to much about him, but I did really like his character. He isn't what he seems to be at first glance and I think he was a great addition to the story.

I received this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tiveda, Colorado isn't supposed to be the destination. It's a town where families stay until they can make their way to someplace bigger and better. For 12 year old Jade, that was the plan, but her dad ended up with liver cancer, and they stayed. Meanwhile friends around her moved in and out of town at breakneck speed until she retreated to the safety of her notebooks. It was there that she created a best friend in Zoe. Meanwhile a boy named Clue has been watching her writing with growing interest. He sets into motion a chain of events that will change Jade's view of friendship forever.

I liked the story, it just moved a little slower than I found engaging.

Jade is a lonely girl. She has no best friend and her dad is fighting cancer. Instead of trying to make friends she write about a perfect friend - Zoe. But when a classmate, Clue, steals her notebook and sprinkles "magic" pond water on it Zoe becomes real. Zoe is just like Jade imagined - funny, popular, and she lives right across the street. But soon Jade realizes that she can't imagine every thought and action for Zoe and Zoe starts becoming her own person. Can Jade control this friendship?
This book was actually meatier and more thought provoking than it might appear initially - some good friendship guidelines and thoughts.

Friend or Fiction really took me by surprise. I had a feeling that this would be an interesting read, but this one definitely hit me in all the feels! I don't read many magical realism stories and this one reminded me that I really need to pick up more of them.

In Friend or Fiction, we follow our main character Jade. Life hasn't been normal for awhile. Her family moves around frequently and that hasn't made it easy to make friends. Things get even harder when her Dad is diagnosed with cancer and her best friend isn't the greatest friend after all. She has a clear idea of what the perfect best friend should be like and writes the adventures she wishes she'd have with that best friend.

This story sucked me in right away and I finished it in no time (it's under 300 pages, so a fast read anyways). I loved this story and it's very realistic. Jade has a lot to cope with and I think the author showed us how a kid her age would deal with everything. She doesn't make the greatest decisions, but no one is always perfect. The most important part of this whole story is that she really learns a lot while going. Friend or Fiction has great character development and is perfect for this age group. I think it's important they get stories that are realistic and some that they may be able to relate to.

Friend or Fiction is really touching and definitely brought tears to my eyes. I can't imagine what it was like for Jade. She has so much to deal with at a young age. Jade makes mistakes, but learns from them as well. This book is very friend and family orientated. Even though this book is filled with lessons, the journey is very enjoyable! I can't wait to see what this author writes next!

This book is an exploration of what it truly means to be a friend. But it also covers many other relevant topics for kids today, like economic challenges, terminal illness, and loss of friendship due to moving. Jade lives in a sort of "stepping stone" town---people don't stick around for long there. So, she's struggled to make meaningful friendships and has resorted to an imaginary friend named Zoe who she writes about daily. When Zoe comes to life, it seems perfect, but Jade struggles when Zoe fails to live up to her expectations of what a best friend should be. She also struggles to deal with her father's cancer and his inability to be completely present in her life the way she'd like him to be. I'm not going to lie: Jade is sometimes a difficult character to like, even when you do sympathize with her. She often acts selfishly (with both Zoe and a boy named Clue, who she holds a grudge against), and her perspective is skewed by her past experiences of loss. Still, even though I didn't always love Jade's attitudes or actions, I was always rooting for her to grow and learn from her mistakes. By the end of the book, Jade realizes that she hasn't been looking at friendship the right way.

The magical elements of this book are intriguing and mysterious. And I love the way that Jade's love of writing was woven into the story (and into the magic in an unexpected way). Overall, this was a lovely story!

***Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

This book was an interesting concept and a cute read. I loved how passionate Jade was about write. I am sitting sitting on my thoughts and will give a more in depth review soon.

Have you ever had an imaginary best friend? What would you do if that friend came to life? Well, Jade doesn't have to imagine anymore. Her imaginary best friend actually came to life. Jade lives in a town in Colorado where people come and go all the time. Every time she thinks she has a best friend, they up and move and never stay in touch. She is so tired of being alone that she decides to write about the perfect best friend, Zoe. Jade and Zoe go on all kinds of adventures and are always there for each other. But one day when a boy from Jade's class, Clue, takes her notebook for the weekend, Jade feels lost. How can she survive the weekend without her stories about Zoe? When she goes for a walk she happens to see Clue by the nasty pond with her notebook. He drops a few drops from the pond and viola - Zoe appears in the house across the street. Jade has never been happier in her life. She can actually do all of the things that she has written about with the real Zoe. Things seem great at first, but when Zoe starts to get a mind of her own and starts to make other friends, Jade become very jealous because she doesn't want to share her friend. Then things get worse when Jade's parents surprise her and her younger brother with a vacation. Her dad is battling cancer and this trip is with other families who have someone battling cancer. Jade does not want to leave Zoe with the other girls at school because she is afraid she will lose her too. Jade is shocked to find Clue on this trip too, and it is then that she realizes that maybe she has had her nose in her notebook for far too long. Will Jade lose Zoe to the "sparkle girls" at school? Will Clue send Zoe back where she came from so that he can bring someone back to life? Will Jade and Clue realize that the friend they both have been longing for could be right in front of them? Read this incredible book about what it truly means to be a best friend!

I loved everything about this book! I was drawn into Jade's world from the first page and her loneliness broke my heart. And on top of that her sadness over her dad's illness made my heart wrench for her even more. I was so happy when Zoe came along for her, but I quickly realized that Zoe did not know what it meant to be a best friend. I loved how Abby Cooper worked her magic in this story of love, loss, family, and friendship. Don't miss this one!

I can see this book becoming a popular book club read among the middle-grade readers. When reading you feel like you are Jade and feel her emotions so deeply. What she is going through is so common among our children. A sick parent and the life they know is turned upside down.

The magical realism that is part of the plot is used nicely. It didn’t make me cringe as some do. Middle graders will love it. I think my fourth-grade cousin will love this book.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Charlesbridge, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

The story, first of all, felt very original. The part that I liked most was that the main character, Jade, was aspiring to be writer. She is writing "oppservations" in her diary and that were the most fun parts for me, since the questions she asks there, are pretty philosophical and would be good for Middle Graders to think about. Sadly, I was annoyed by the main character most of the time, and didn't enjoy the story that much. That made me give the book 2 stars.

Pros
Original story: The story was an original one. A realistic story with a twist of magic. I'd love there to be less Fantasy stories and more Magical Realism stories. The story has a deep emotional layer in it and the final chapters were pretty good. I got the message behind the book and for that I applaud the author.
Oppservations: The oppservations from Jade were mature questions and I had hoped to see more of that maturity in her behavior. It felt like the oppservations were written by a totally different person. It did make you feel a little bit more involved in the story, because unknowingly, I was still pondering about the questions that Jade asks herself.
Clue: My favorite character in this book. He's sweet and honest and just felt like the only real person that was in this book.

Cons
Shallow characters: There could've been so much more development in the characters in this book. Zoe doesn't even have parents and Jades parents feel shallow even though something big is happening with Jades father. Zoe doesn't know certain words in the story, because Jade made her up, but that only comes forth in one or two scenes, because how can you communicate with someone that only knows certain words? Jade is using her notebook to keep Zoe for herself out of jealousy. She doesn't even want to go on a family trip, because she is afraid her friend is going to hang out with other people? I just couldn't at some point...
Confusing: I was cringing a lot while reading this book. Everything felt very stereotypical, and I'm not sure if that is what we want to teach our Middle Graders. The story is kinda weird, because no one is freaked out by Jades made up friend coming out of her notebook. Some stories in the notebook have already happened, and some stories that Jade wrote still have to happen, so that was confusing. At the end, the message didn't really get through to me, because I was just annoyed with Jade and the story overall.

Overall
I'm pretty sure it's harder to write Children's and Middle Grade books if you're an adult author, because how do we know what kids of those ages like? Well, I do know what I want to teach kids in life, and I do know what I like as a reader, and this story just kinda missed the mark for me. I am curious what other readers and younger readers think, tough. The few oppservations in the book were fun and the message behind the story was nice, but I was mainly annoyed with Jade and the story.

Abby Cooper’s middle grade novel, Friend or Fiction, begins with the common problem for this age of finding true friendship. Keeping friends for Jade Levy is complicated by her location in a town where people never live for long. She observes that nobody lives long in the transition town of Tiveda, Colorado because everybody longs to be anyplace else. After she loses several friends who move away and promise to keep in touch but do not, she creates her own friend Zoe in her writing notebook.

Isolating herself to write at lunch time, Jade assumes the Sparkle girls who group together in the cafeteria have shunned her. She loses herself daily in her story, reporting her word count to Mrs. Yang, her English teacher, when lunch is over. Mrs. Yang reads her work and inserts good writing habits and instruction into the support she gives Jade to be a good writer, but also encourages her to live her life fully.

Jade reads her account of Zoe to her father and it seems to cheer him after his cancer diagnosis. When it gets into the hands of her classmate with a nickname of Clue because he gives hints to answers, he does some magical realism with pond water and brings Zoe to life. Jade controls this new best (imaginary?) friend through her writing until that becomes disappointing. She must make some decisions about what true friendship entails and open her mind to new perceptions of Clue and the Sparkle girls.

This is a good book for a middle grader with the empathy to care about real world problems and the imagination to enjoy magical realism.

12-year-old Jade Levy writes stories. Since she doesn’t have a best friend anymore, she creates a fictional one named Zoe. They have all sorts of adventures together and Jade even enjoys spending her lunch period creating more episodes in her notebook.

Jade’s father has cancer and he finds comfort in listening to Jade’s stories. But one day, her friend Clue takes her writing notebook away without explanation. And when a real-life Zoe suddenly moves in next door, looking and acting exactly like the fictional Zoe, Jade is both excited and worried. What did Clue do to her writing notebook? Is Zoe really here to stay? But most of all: Can Jade trust Zoe to make the right decisions or do they need to be tediously detailed in her notebook?

Filled with magical realism, this story is one of hope and bonding. We clearly see that friendships are messy. Every day cannot be perfect and fun and everything we’ve ever dreamed about. We have all had to learn, at one time or another, that having friends doesn’t mean we don’t experience loneliness. And this point is such an important lesson for Jade to digest if she wants to be a good friend. I also appreciated that the story dives into how to write and how to trust your readers to fill in the gaps. This gave me pause as I thought back over the books I’ve read where the author gave me just enough for my imagination to fill in the cracks as well as the books that fed me every last detail. There’s so much content here for open discussion with young readers and writers!

Thanks to Netgalley and Charlesbridge for approving an e-ARC so that I could provide an honest review. This title published on October 8th, so run out and grab a fresh copy!

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC of this entertaining and inspirational read. Friendship is such a huge and important topic for middle schoolers and this book can help so many see that their struggles are not that different from others. I think the humor plus the serious tones really balanced out the story.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I’ll be honest: at first, I wasn’t really sure about this book. I thought it was a great concept but I wasn’t a huge fan of how Jade treated Zoe. BUT I was very happy with the resolution and how the book ended. I thought it did a great job exploring grief, fear, and how to navigate early friendships.

I thought this was a cute and clever book that is helpful for middle-grade aged kids. I think it was good that it showed her dealing with hard situations. I think kids could really related to Jade on a lot of levels.

Thank you NetGalley, Abby Cooper, and Charlesbridge for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher:
Description
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.

I found it to be a charming story for girls. To invent your own best friend is an amazing thing, getting lost in your own stories. Very magical, well written. Great character development and the narrative flowed nicely.

This was so fun! A touch of magic in an otherwise realistic friendship story made this fun to read. I loved all the ways Jade grew through the course of the book - her personal journey was the most satisfying part of this for me. TONS of material for a book group or a classroom read aloud to dig into - cancer, grief, isolation, family, friendship, etc. I also loved all the great writing and writer-related pieces of the story. Don't miss this one.

Friend or Fiction is a super cute and straightforward middle grave novel about family, friendship, and writing. The magic of an imaginary friend/character coming to life is a fun concept perfect for the intended audience. The story addresses typical themes found in middle grade novels such as friendship, jealousy, life's hardships (in this case a cancer diagnosis), and family bonding, all with a positive ending. The writing advice throughout is also helpful and appreciated. Friend or Fiction is a decent middle grade contemporary with a dash of magic. While it'll speak to the intended audience, it may be a little too bland for other age groups.

Friend or Fiction immediately caught my attention because of the cover, and then summary pulled me in. Imaginary friends are such a big and important phenomenon, yet so tricky to cover. Cooper used Jade's writing and I thought it absolutely brilliant.

Unfortunately the book let me down somewhat, as I wasn't fond of how easily Jade used her control over Zoe, even if she at times felt uncomfortable about it, and her clinginess and jealousy, even though I understood. It put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, as I started out loving Jade, only to like her less and less as the story went on. However, because of the things I didn't like, there are some really important lessons in here for kids, that might otherwise not really hit home.

I do want to give a major shoutout to Clue/Gresham, for being so kind and helpful even if Jade is awful to him all the time.

Last, but not least, this deals with cancer in the family as well. And not just as a background thing- it's a big part of the story. Jade worries about her father all the time. I got really emotional over something related to it, concerning Jade's little brother.

Overall, I give Friend or Fiction 3,5/5 stars, rounded up to 4, as I did really enjoy reading it. It's a fast and easy read, dealing with some serious things. Would definitely recommend!

How do you make friends in a town when everyone is always moving away and your family stays?

"Friend or Fiction" is a beautiful story about what it means to be a good friend as well as showing that there is no such thing as a perfect friend. Cooper explores some extremely heavy topics with a lightness and grace that allows this story to still be a lot of fun. Jade is such a relatable character, just wanting to fit in, and she is a great role model for bookish kids, showing that it is good to be different. Cooper also deals with the fact that everyone is going through things that other people cannot see and shows kids that they should be more accepting of those around them rather than writing off people quickly.

The magical realism of the story makes this story feel different and unique while still being relatable and quite realistic.