Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational
Weblink
www.rachelvail.com

BAD BEST FRIEND

Rachel Vail

Rachel Vail's powerful middle-grade novel proves once again that no one does tween better than she does!

Niki Ames can't wait to start eighth grade, that all-important year before high school. She and her best friend Ava have shared so many plans for the coming year. But then the unthinkable happens: at the talent show pair-up, Ava chooses someone else to be her partner. Niki is devastated. It's clear that Ava wants to be part of the popular group, leaving Niki behind. Niki has to decide who her real friends should be, where her real interests lie. Meanwhile, life at home is complicated. Niki's nine-year-old brother Danny continues to act out more and more publicly. Their mother refuses to admit that Danny is somewhere on the autism spectrum, but it's clear he needs help. Niki doesn't want to be like her brother, to be labeled as different. She just wants to be popular! Is she a bad sister and a bad best friend?

Rachel Vail is the award-winning author of more than thirty books. Of her first book, Wonder, Judy Blume said, "Wonder is wonderful. It has energy, humor, and heart"; these are qualities Rachel's books still display. Rachel grew up in New Rochelle, New York, and attended Georgetown University. She lives near Columbia University on New York's Upper West Side with her husband, their two sons, and a tortoise named Lightning. Visit her at www.rachelvail.com or on Twitter: @rachelvailbooks.

Available products
Book Published 2020-03-24 by Viking Children's Books

Comments

When the gym teacher tells the eighth-grade class to pair up with their best friends, Niki is stunned when her long term bestie Ava edges away from her and partners up with a more popular classmate. While it's clear their friendship is circling the drain, mercurial Ava sends mixed signals, and Niki, fixated on her identity as the person who understands Ava and her underlying fragility, keeps hanging on and hoping for a return to full inclusion. Meanwhile, at home, Niki's younger brother is increasingly struggling, but her relentlessly bright-sided mother insists that getting him tested for autism would just harm him and hurt the family's reputation on their small Maine island. As usual, Vail adroitly depicts personality and human dynamics with deceptive simplicity, revealing the complicated facets of this friendship drift. Ava is superbly characterized in her mix of manipulative gas lighting and age-appropriate emotional clumsiness as she grabs onto people and pushes them away according to her momentary need, but Niki does much the same thing to her hastily created new friend group, and Niki's family dynamics clearly set her up to accommodate at all costs. Readers who've experienced the serrated edge of friendship will sympathize with Niki's anguish, and they'll be glad to see her coming into her own.