Not the Worst Friend in the World by Anne Rellihan
First off, that title is hilarious. I found myself thinking phrases like this when I was a kid. Sometimes even as an adult.
Not the worst friend, sister, teacher, librarian, daughter…
Lou said something to her best friend that she wishes she could take back. But for now, she has to live with it. You do find out what she did, and it is sort of terrible. I would be mad at her as well. But a new girl at her school, Cece, just passed her a note asking for help. Is this Lou’s fresh start with a new friend?
I want to say that I adore Lou and her notebook. She was a little obsessed with Harriet the Spy, and from then on, she always had a notebook to write down what she saw. I am sort of the same. I don’t do it for spying; I just like having a notebook to write down things I see and things I want to research.
Cece’s problem is actually pretty serious. She believes her dad kidnapped her from her mom. I was shocked when I read this. The girls are in 6th grade, so they don’t have cell phones, and she doesn’t know her mom’s phone number or email. I, as an adult reader, was like “Call the police! Call social services! Call Olivia Benson!” But Cece wants to get in touch with her mom without causing trouble for her dad. Her parents were separating, and her mom went to spend a few days with her family when her dad brought Cece to live with her grandmother. She doesn’t feel in danger; she just wants her mom back. I didn’t know exactly how this would end, but something told me it would be very sad.
Cece clearly knows something is going on with her mom not coming with them to stay with grandma. I was a little annoyed that the dad didn’t say anything. I get that she is just starting 6th grade, but you can’t hide stuff like this from kids. They will either figure it out or come up with something horrible, which will stress them out. So, Cece and Lou spend their time sneaking around trying to find information about where Cece’s mom might be, and why her dad took her away. Ugh, I wanted them to just talk to an adult so many times!
I felt so bad for Lou. She wants to be helpful and a good friend. She wanted to help Cece and show that she can be a good friend, but I think she was being almost more of a pushover. Anything that Cece wanted to do, Lou seemed to just go with it. She seemed to have good intentions, but could never get herself to speak them aloud. There were a lot of “Should have, would have, could have” type of things going on that she kept to herself. Then it became even harder to do any of these things because she waited so long.
Of course, everything falls apart, and Lou is forced to face the things she has done or not done. It is a little messy, but things come together nicely in the end.
Four out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Literary Coffee 