Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Children’s, Teenage & Educational

UNFRIENDED

Rachel Vail

Rachel Vail’s insight into the middle school world is unmatched and her style sparkles in a story of friendship lost and found.

In middle school, nothing is more important than friendship. When Truly is invited to sit at the Popular Table with the group she has dreamed of joining, she can hardly believe her luck. Everyone seems so nice, so kind to one another.

But all is not as it seems with her new friends, and soon she's caught in a maelstrom of lies, misunderstandings, accusations and counter-accusations, all happening very publicly in the relentless, hyperconnected social media world from which there is no escape.

Six eighth-graders, four girls and two boys, struggle to understand and process their fractured glimples into one another's lives as they find new ways to disconnect, but also to connect, in Rachel Vail's richest and most searching book.

Rachel Vail is the author of more than twenty books for young readers, including her first book, Wonder, about which Judy Blume said: "Wonder is wonderful. It's got energy, humor, and heart." Her four-book series, The Friendship Ring, will be reissued in Puffin in Fall 2014. Rachel grew up in New Rochelle and attended Georgetown University. She has two sons; they and their friends provide her with a wealth of material for her writing. She lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Available products
Book Published 2014-09-25 by Viking Children's Books
Book Published 2014-09-25 by Viking Children's Books

Comments

Author's article about: Five things adults get wrong about their teenage kids Read more...

As each character struggles for position, the group is portrayed clearly through dialogue, inner thoughts and text messages. The author has captured the naive and sometimes spiteful competition in the hierarchies of school… Middle school readers can relate to ‘Unfriended".

Once again, Vail effectively conveys the sometimes unthinking cruelty of middle-school society with a clear and objective eye.

Vail has a great ear for dialogue, and her characters, while not initially very likeable, are well differentiated and realistic.

Rachel Vail’s ingenious, humorous, and compassionate storytelling brings her six narrators so fully alive that by the end of her book you cannot imagine ever ‘unfriending’ any of them.

The author rises to the difficult technical challenge of keeping all these chaotic plot elements in clear and compelling play, and she not only plausibly pulls her characters out of their combined downward spiral but manages to give everybody some grace and hope. This will be an irresistible starter to a discussion of ethics and values, and readers will appreciate both the cautionary tale and the message of survival’s possibility.

Author's article: Top 15 Things Your Middle School Kid Wishes You Knew Read more...

Rachel Vail video resources on UNFRIENDED, and how to combat cyberbullying Read more...

Rachel Vail should be required reading for all middle-schoolers. Deft and funny, this tale of the doom and drama of friendship played out in a digital universe is pitch-perfect and sheer fun. I loved it!

At times laugh out loud funny, and other times heartbreaking, Unfriended is the kind of book I wish there were more of: emotionally complex, beautifully written, and impossible to put down.

There is a great deal of fiction that centers on female characters, so it is refreshing and insightful to gain perspective from the male point of view.

With keen insight, Vail reveals the internal struggles with uncertainty and self-doubt that can plague young teens regardless of popularity status… Vail concludes the tale with a resolution that is both realistic and hopeful. Vail captures the complexity of middle school social challenges, insightfully addressing the issues of friendships and integrity.

With keen insight, Vail reveals the internal struggles with uncertainty and self-doubt that can plague young teens regardless of popularity status. . . With a resolution that is both realistic and hopeful, Vail captures the complexity of middle school social challenges, insightfully addressing the issues of friendships and integrity.

Rachel Vail video resources on UNFRIENDED, and how to combat cyberbullying Read more...

A solid choice that will ignite meaningful discussion.

Download the Penguin Kids discussion and educator guide on cyberbulling featuring UNFRIENDED Read more...