Don’t mistake the long lull between start and finish for anything more than extremely BUSY January. I loved the story of Jade and her family. Jade’s dad has cancer and she doesn’t make friends since they all leave the town anyway. She’s a writer! She writes during lunch and is supported by her teacher. Well one day her sort of friend Clue takes over and suddenly her writing comes true. There is a new girl named Zoe enters her school. Is it coincidence that Zoe is the best friend she has always dreamed
Of having? Read to find out! Fun story about relationships and overcoming obstacles. Well done, Abby Cooper!

This book is about so much more than a girl and her imaginary friend. It also serves as a great lesson for middle school-aged children about what it means to be a true friend to someone. All of the worries Jade has about Zoe leaving her for the more popular girls at school are the same fears that many children experience, especially as they get older. Zoe serves as a way for Jade to not only deal with her fear of being abandoned by her friends, but to also deal with her fears about her father. The parts of the book that directly address Jade's dad's cancer are sad and funny and true to life. As an adult reading the book I picked up on Clue's backstory and motivation for helping Jade, but it may come as more of surprise to younger readers. I enjoyed getting to see Jade and Clue's friendship develop throughout the book. I also really liked the relationship between Jade and her younger brother; so often in stories the older sister wants nothing to do with a younger sibling, but Jade loves her brother and isn't embarrassed by him or his drawings. Again, as an adult I picked up on what the villain in his drawings represented, but Jade's realization was so sweetly written and served as another example of what a great sister she is. Part of me thinks the book could have done with the magical aspect and kept Zoe just as an imaginary friend, but part of me thinks it worked as a plot device.

I highly recommend this book to middle school librarians and teachers. It would be a great way to start conversations about writing, friendship, and family members with cancer or other serious medical conditions.

Sad, but sweet. A good read for upper elementary students anxious about middle school. Jade is a middle school student who lacks friends, has a father who has cancer, and life has sort of been put on hold. A writer's notebook is her only companion, but helpful teachers look out for her and there is happiness. It gets better. It is a message a lot of young people will need to hear before they leave the safety of an elementary school.

This is an odd and lethargically moving story about young Jade whose father is in remission from cancer, and who is so lonely and at a loss in life that she invents a friend for herself through writing down all the pertinent details in her notebook, unfortunately not many details are pertinent to Jade, and she never seems to grasp the import of this. Consequently I grew a strong dislike of Jade the more I read of this and by eighty percent in, I could not stand to read any more of her and I quit the novel.

In writing in her precious notebook, Jade creates a best friend named Zoe, who is so close to her that the two can almost read each other's thoughts. They get along famously, and have the best times together; then Zoe appears in real life, moving into the house across the street, just like in Jade's original story. Jade discovers that whatever she writes in the book happens in her life with Zoe.

The biggest problem with this book for me is that it never went anywhere. Jade did the same kind of things every day even after Zoe showed up. She went through the same motions, and never seemed to grow; never seemed to change. It was Zoe who began to change, going beyond what Jade had written for her. And that was part of my problem with Jade. She was so annoyingly self-centered and focused on her own needs. I kept thinking, hoping, she would start to see the light, but she never did and by eighty percent it had grown super tiresome reading the same story over and over again.

Everything was about Jade and despite getting multiple signs that things were wrong with her relationship with, and control of Zoe, Jade was too dumb to figure it out. Zoe has only what things Jade has written - nothing more, nothing less, and even when Jade learns this she makes no effort whatsoever to set things right. Zoe herself never seems to think there’s anything wrong with this relationship. This held true way past the halfway point in the novel and by then this repetitive pattern was mind-numbingly tedious.

Perhaps the worst thing about Jade though was that she was so selfish that she never thought of using her magical writing ability to help her family. Her kid bother has some issue which is clear from the endless drawings he does of fighting a nameless 'bad guy'. The odd thing is that no one ever thinks this is odd, and Jade shows no interest in that or in helping him by adding something to her magical notebook to ease his concerns. Neither does she once think of helping her father, who admittedly is in remission from his cancer (presumably the 'bad guy' the boy is fighting in his pictures), but who is far from free and clear. It never even crosses Jade's mind that maybe she could fix this - she doesn't even experiment just to see. It's really deadening to read about someone whose mind simply doesn't function intelligently.

Another thing which bothered me is that Jade's English teacher, who commendably encourages Jade to write, actually read one of her stories about Zoe - and this was after Zoe had appeared in real life. Her comment was, "I think it’s so clever how you incorporated our new student into your story," but never once does she ask Jade if Jade had asked permission to write about Zoe. Not only was it really not clever incorporating a real living school friend in a fictional work, it was disturbing that the teacher never even offered so much as a cautionary note about incorporating classmates into your fiction without permission. It’s not like Jade was six years old. She was beginning the pathway to maturity and definitely needed some guidelines about what’s permissible and the importance of choosing the liberty not taken.

Jade is not a very proactive girl. She's very much passive, even when it comes to writing things that she thinks will help her relationship with Zoe. She came across as very shallow and not capable of standing up for herself, even when this really creepy guy at school steals her notebook and refuses to give it back to her for a whole weekend. She simply lets him have it, and never complains to anyone about it. He gives it back to her after the weekend, but she has to ask for it. Her passivity here was disturbing.

If this guy had been her best friend, that would be one thing - there would have been some level of implicit trust, and I could see then that she might let him get away with it, but she didn't even like this guy - in fact, she actively disliked him, yet she let him walk all over her. That's not the kind of girl I like to read about. I don't mind if a character starts out this way in a novel but I expect to see something happen - some change start taking place and when there is literally none in four-fifths of a novel a reader is highly justified in considering DNF-ing the book. I resented the fact that I had trusted the writer to make things happen and so kept reading. I will never get that wasted time back.

There were the usual technical issues with the kindle version of this novel caused by Amazon's crappy Kindle conversion process which will, I guarantee you, mangle your book if it has any pretentions beyond being plain vanilla in format and layout. This was obviously another book aimed at the print market without a single thought given to the ebook version, and it showed.

Admittedly it was an ARC which hopefully will improve before publication, but this ebook had multiple issues. A common one is that text lines would randomly end before they reached the right side of the screen and then resume on the next line while other lines go the whole way across the screen as you would expect, and I'm not talking about naturally short single lines, I'm talking about lines in the middle of a paragraph ending prematurely like they have a hard carriage return in the line.

Additionally, there were random letter V's in the middle of the text. I ahve no idea what that was all about but it's typically what will happen when your print version has page headers (such as book title on one side and author name on the other for example). Kindle will put these right into the text, because Amazon doesn’t care. Never has, never will. Why the book would have a single letter 'V' as a header, I do not know, but this frequently appeared in the middle of the text on a line on its own, breaking up the flow of the test, such as:

V
needed a little more time. Maybe you couldn’t rush real happy feelings.
But maybe you couldn’t write them into happen
ing, either. ≈
"I’d like to make a toast,"
Don't ask me what that 'almost equal to' math symbol (the wavy equals sign) is doing there! That was a common occurrence, and I can only assume it’s a section marker where the author used ≈ instead of the more technically correct §. Authors use all kinds of things to denote a break in the text, but Kindle didn't respect this here and it rarely does, so instead of appearing on its own line in the center of the line as it ought, it appeared as you see it above along with the random bolding of that penultimate line!

If Kindle can screw up your ebook, trust me, they will. This process also mangled chapter headings. You cannot use drop caps and expect Kindle to know what to do with them. Amazon will mangle them with relish. So, for example, chapter three was titled 'More Than Zero', and it began with the word 'The' but the 'T' was a drop-cap, so this is what Kindle did to it:

More Than
Z
3
ero
He lunch-is-over bell rang. Still clutching my
T
notebook,
Now that there is some seriously professional mangling. You have to hate literature to design a conversion process that will trash-up a chapter heading/beginning as badly as that. And no one does it better than the Amazon juggernaut. Again, DO NOT submit a novel to Amazon for conversion to ebook format unless it is pure plain vanilla text. Anything more than that, Amazon will destroy it because Amazon hates anything that looks individual or artistic. This is why they have their own format instead of using the standard format. It's because they want to control and homogenize everything, even how your novel looks. Barnes and Noble have their own issues, believe me, but at least they don’t predictably trash your writing. Yet Amazon rules. Go figure!

The Kindle conversion process also likes to randomly bold text as I mentioned, and even turn it red for reasons I cannot explain. The red text in this book appeared right before chapter one began. The random bolding appeared throughout the text as in the example above, where "ing, either. ≈" was bolded for no good reason.

Note that these are technical issues and nothing to do with the story itself, but I think a publisher and an author ought to take it upon themselves to give the ebook version a once-over to see if Amazon has ruined their novel, because Amazon does this routinely in my experience. This is one of several reasons why I personally will have no truck with Amazon publishing my work.

But judged on the story alone I cannot commend this as a worthy read. It was too slow and showed no sign of going anywhere by 80%, and that's when I decided I'd read mroe than enough to give this one a fair chance

A middle schooler in a small town where nobody stays for long, discovers true friendship. After her storybook perfect friend is brought to life, Jade finds out maybe fun and happy all the time isn't perfect. Sometimes what is right in front of you is actually the best friendship.

Actual rating: 2.5

First off, only after I was approved for this book, I noticed that it's described as magical realism, which is obviously problematic, as the author is white so magical realism isn't a part of her culture. It also goes to show how limited publisher's understanding of magical realism is, because adding a fantastical element to your otherwise realistic story does not suddenly make it magical realism. Ugh.

Anyway, that's what I wanted to say about the description of the book. Now onto the actual novel. I found this to be an enjoyable middlegrade, but it was a little bland at times. There was plenty of heart, and I really liked the main character learning what friendship is and isn't and learning to make friends herself. I also loved the sibling relationship and the main character's relationship with her parents, especially her father. But somehow, I felt like something was missing. It all seemed a little straightforward and I feel like the book could have done with a little more plot.

CWs: loneliness, cancer/illness of a parent.

What a sweet story of what friendship means. Jade was so realistic to me. I enjoyed getting to know her.

This is such a cool book, and it has two levels. One level is that Jade is lonely and so writes about her imaginary friend. Zoe is the perfect friend, and all her stories tell of how perfect she is, how fun she is, and what a good friend she is.

The other level is <em>why</em> Jade has created an imaginary friend to write about, and how Clue notices this, and understands, and so decides to help her by using magic water to bring Zoe to life.

I loved how Zoe was exactly what Jade had imagined, down to not having parents, because Jade had never done that part of the backstory for them.

Then there is the issue of Jade's father having cancer, that is driving her to need to have something good in her life.

I thought the story was only predictable when it came to Clue. But everything else was a delightful surprise, and kodos for not making the Sparkly Girls into mean girls. I am tired of that cliche.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This book is well written and the characters are cute. This is a cute and sad book. It is about friendship and family. The pace of the story is good. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Some books are just plain fun, as is the case with Friend or Fiction. The main character, Jade, is an aspiring author who has written herself a best friend, Zoe. She had several real life best friends before, but most people just didn't live in her town for long before moving on to a larger one. Jade's family life is currently tough as her father has been diagnosed with cancer and he loves to hear her stories about Zoe so she keeps on writing them. One day another kid in town tries a magical way to bring Zoe to life. This causes all kinds of excitement and drama but in the end Jade learns something about herself, about how to make friends, and even about crafting a great story. This is book is hard to put down once you pick it up, I kept finding myself coming back to read another chapter and another.

I read this as I teach Middle Schoolers and am always looking for new texts to work with. I enjoyed the story and looked forward to seeing how it developed. As a book for young people it worked well and allows for a lot of discussion around what makes a good friend, how the choices we make affect us and people around us, etc. I enjoyed the developing friendship between the characters and the self awareness that came through. The latter part of the book was fairly predictable but I will not hesitate to use it in our school mindfulness sessions. Thanks for an easy read

Jade has a lot going on in her life with her Dad’s cancer and her best friend moving away. Her way to avoid no friend is to write a best friend into her life. But when her best friend becomes real, Jade still struggles with being a good friend. She doesn’t want to share Zoe with anyone and is afraid Zoe will make other friends. Jade’s feelings will feel very realistic to young readers and many will relate to friendship issues.

4/5
There are so many real life topics addressed in this book, I think ever young person should read it.

I can’t describe the way this wrapped up so perfectly without giving away too much!

There were a few points that I felt the scene dragged on, but alas this was not written for my adult mind.

Overall well written and amazingly spoken. At times children young and old have to deal with hard life situations and sometimes the right book may be what they need to offer encouragement and strength in that time of their life. This is it.

Friend or Fiction by Abby Cooper
#FriendOrFiction #NetGalley

ARC Copy...It was good narrative mixed with magical realism (which the protagonist actually points out) of a girl going through all the emotions that comes with being lonely and her parent going through cancer yet she seems to go through with it via her creativity...which manifest in her "perfect friend" she made. It is also interesting how the dynamics with her "friend" works out as if...sometimes its better just let your creation free to be their own instead of controlling them.

Jade lived in a town where people didn't really stick around for long. Because Jade's family has decided to be in Triveda a little longer, Jade struggles to make any real friends. So instead she turns to her journal where she writes the best friend stories she could dream up. While she is busy writing stories she is missing out on a few things. But a strange turn off events with a boy named Clue have her questioning if her friendship stories are real or fiction. With a little magic, important teachers and new experiences, Jade learns the importance of living in the moment with the people closest to you and the value of real friends.
Cooper did a great job with Friend or Fiction with characters to wanted to know about, settings that were relatable and situations that made you to laugh, cry and read it all over again. I can't wait to share this with readers.

Jade and her family find themselves in nowhere Colorado, where everyone moves away from sooner or later. Due to her dad’s medical condition, they have to stay longer than expected, leaving Jade feeling lonely, because her friends always move, and pressured, because she has to put up an “everything is fine” facade around her family. Wanting to have something constant in her life, she creates Zoe, her imaginary friend that comes to life one day, thus comes a story about appreciating what's around you. This felt very realistic. I felt whenever Jade became jealous, I would cringe whenever she tried to change Zoe’s path. The author did a good job of giving Jade a healthy conscience, because she would also address the things I felt were going a bit too far, like playing god to her imaginary-turned-real friend.

This book is really clear about the “lonely” and “alone” distinction, which I love. Jade almost, unwillingly, makes herself feel lonely, even though there are plenty of people who would love to talk to her/be around her (we've all been there). She realizes this toward the end of the book, that even if you’re lonely, it doesn’t mean you have to feel or be alone. I've already recommended this title to my students.

Thank you to Charlesbridge and Netgalley for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Jade is alone but not lonely, in school she hangs out by herself writing about her best friend Zoe, only she's imaginary until school mate Clue, somehow makes her come to life!



Jade and Zoe become inseparable and as Jade also deals with her dad having liver cancer it's a welcome distraction and amazing to live out her stories she invented even though she then learns she has to deal with the consequences of what she did and didn't include in her stories.



I really love the concept and design of the book how there's loop holes in her plan of creating a best friend but she doesn't fill in her life story so much that when she becomes real she loves alone and has no parent to look after her and her home is barren. Overall it was important showing how friends can feel like everything and how nothing in life is ever perfect we all aged a struggle and it's ok to not be ok.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

This book was so inspiring! I loved everything about it! Having a best friend is amazing when your young and losing one can be awful and trigger all kinds of coping mechanisms! Thank you netgalley for the free arc in exchange for an honest review!

I received an electronic ARC from Charlesbridge through NetGalley.
Jade is a lonely sixth grader who finds her escape through writing. She creates a girl (Zoe) and writes stories about the two of them. Everything is happy and perfect in the stories so Jade can escape dealing with the fears in her life. Her dad has liver cancer. He came through one remission and the cancer returned. As the story begins, he has completed his chemotherapy but is still recovering.
A young man (Clue) in Jade's class takes her writing notebook and uses some magic to bring Zoe to life. Jade has to keep writing in order for Zoe to know anything. There are humorous moments as Zoe "comes to life." The rest of the book is dedicated to Jade facing her emotions and discovering what friendship really means - control or free choices.
Cooper captures the gamut of emotions Jade refuses to face and realistically demonstrates how a young girl channels this into writing. She learns about herself and being aware of others around her. She realizes how much of her life she has ignored to focus on creating a dream world both with the written and real Zoe.
Middle Grade readers will relate to the characters and recognize themselves and their friends and classmates. Readers experiencing trauma in their lives will identify with the methods characters use to cope.