The Hard Kind of Promise

Sarah promised Marjorie when they were five years old that they would be best friends forever. But that was before seventh grade, when everything changed—everything except Marjorie. She still wears babyish clothes and wants to watch movies about space aliens and brings smelly sandwiches for lunch. Not only has Sarah lost interest in those things, but the things that do interest her—boys and chorus—are taking her further away from Marjorie. How did a promise that was so easy to make become so hard to keep? With beautifully drawn characters and vivid details, this incisive novel portrays middle school in all its complexity—both the promise of what is to come and the pain of what must be left behind.