Tag: friendship

DREAM by Barbara O’Connor

Publication August 26, 2025-Macmillan Children’s Publishing-Middle Grade-256pp

Book Summary

The highly anticipated follow up to Wish, which has spent six years on the New York Times bestseller list and is beloved by over two million readers. Dream follows a small town girl with big aspirations who discovers that anything is possible with your best friends and an adorable pup by your side!
      The sky is the limit.
Idalee Lovett is content with her life in small-town Colby, North Carolina, living in her family’s huge house with rooms for rent. But she has big dreams, just like her mama. While Mama is on tour for the summer with her cover band, Lovey Lovett and the Junkyard Dogs, Idalee decides to hone her craft as a songwriter—since her truest wish is to hear her country songs on the radio one day.
     When the local radio station announces a songwriting contest with the winning song being recorded by an up-and-coming singer, Idalee is determined to win. It would definitely be possible if only she could buy the shiny blue guitar in Asheville’s music shop. Idalee doesn’t have much money, but she knows exactly how to get it—the long-lost treasure her late granddaddy hid somewhere in their house. With the help of her friends Odell, Howard, Charlie, and an adorable little dog named Wishbone, Idalee is going to search in every nook and cranny until she finds it. But little does she know, the biggest treasure of all is only discovered when you believe in yourself with your whole heart.

     In this standalone companion to the #1 New York Times bestseller Wish, nothing is impossible as Idalee learns the power of chasing her dreams one guitar strum at a time.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Friends come in all sizes, shapes and ages. Idalee learns lots of lessons as she counts on a new guitar to bolster her creativity. All ages will enjoy DREAM and the story of friendship in the Blue Ridge Mountains. I did a paired reading of this with my granddaughter Leona Claire. Her response at the end of each chapter was always, “Let’s keep reading!”

My Friend John by Arleen McCarthy

Featured

Publication November 8, 2024-Austin Macauley Publishers-Children

An uplifting children’s book about the power of kindness, friendship, and understanding and embracing neurodiversity.

Book Overview

Meet John, a remarkable new student at The Huckleberry School. John’s life takes a heartwarming turn when he befriends a sweet little girl named Bella. Everything seems to be going smoothly for John, until a challenging situation resurfaces, shaking the foundations of his world.

In My Friend John, we are invited to witness a touching journey that explores not only the essence of friendship but also the profound qualities of kindness and leadership. This poignant tale serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience within us all and the transformative power of genuine connection.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

My Friend John shows children how to treat a classmate with special needs at school and guidance for parents at home. Arleen McCarthy’s main character, John, has Tourette Syndrome.  Bella, a kind, compassionate classmate, befriends new student John at lunch on his first day. Students of all levels have been in a similar situation. The emotional anxiety of being accepted or the wonderment of how to respond are evident in Bella’s touching account. Bella’s mom also sets a good example when she offers to research Tourette Syndrome. A win for students and parents, alike!

Bella shows how kindness, the power of a simple touch, and connecting through commonalities leads to understanding. Bella reveals leadership skills in her determination to explain TS to the class; showing that with simple information students respond appropriately. Bella wanted her classmates to understand John and to see him like any other classmate.

This children’s book conjures a special memory for me. One of my son’s high school teachers had twin boys; one had TS and the boys were on the basketball team together. Coaches, parents, and players all came to understand Tourette Syndrome. The teacher/father later related what a tremendous impact my son’s example of understanding and acceptance had on his sons and the team.

My third-grade granddaughter recently read My Friend John aloud for me. She admitted, “I felt sad sometimes but happy at the end!” She also commented on the artist’s full-page illustrations and how the eyes of the characters were so expressive. She was not aware of Tourette Syndrome but is now informed! She is quite a little scientist, and a researcher so was very impressed that the mom suggested reading more about Tourette Syndrome.  

An enlightening read for all ages.

Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz

Publication October 31, 2023-Random House Children’s -Middle Grade-272pp

Book Summary

How far would you go to keep a promise? Told from alternating points of view, Hidden Truths is a story of changing friendships, the lies we tell, the secrets we keep, and the healing power of forgiveness.

Dani and Eric have been best friends since Dani moved next door in second grade. They bond over donuts, comic books, and camping on the Cape. Until one summer when everything changes.

Did Eric cause the accident that leaves Dani unable to do the one thing in the world she most cares about? The question plagues him, and he will do anything to get answers about the explosion that injured her. But Dani is hurting too much to want Eric to pursue the truth—she just wants to shut him out and move on. Besides, Eric has a history of dropping things he starts. Eric knows that and is determined that this will be the one time he follows through.

But what if his pursuit brings him into direct conflict with another friend? Where does Eric’s loyalty really lie?

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The middle grade novel Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz is about the forever people in our lives. Loving them. Forgiving them. Fighting for them. It’s also about chasing dreams, finding your superpower, and forgiveness.  

Elly Swartz hit a homerun with Hidden Truths. Parents, teachers, and students will become ardent fans of the main character Dani, who truly loves baseball, (it’s not just a phase), and her best friend since second grade, Eric, who loves crossword puzzles and has worn the same swim trunks for two years. (Yes, he’s smart, skinny and gets bullied at school.) The novel is told from alternating points of view, with a signed baseball for Dani’s chapters, and a crossword puzzle for Eric. Kids will love that!

Dani and Eric learn that friends can be jerks, friends lie, friends use you. Both fans of superheroes and shapeshifting, they learn that superpower is not so great among friends.  An accident happens and Elly Swartz helps young readers navigate the emotions of guilt, making mistakes, and the consequences of lying or telling the truth. Readers are faced with characters who are brave, reckless, scattered (ADHD), and sideways; but all friends grow and change. Are they who we think they are? Readers will eagerly follow Dani and Eric onto the baseball field, down the school hallways, and out to the Cape to find out how Elly Swartz solves this best friend dilemma.

Readers of all ages are reminded that goodbyes are hard, not everything can be fixed with cookies and donuts, (but they help), and we all need forever people.  Insightful. Enlightening. A homerun!

Elly Swartz grew up in Yardley, Pennsylvania, where she lived a happy childhood filled with laughs, family dinners, and crooked birthday cakes. She studied psychology at Boston University and received a law degree from Georgetown University School of Law. The mother of two grown sons, Elly now lives in Massachusetts with her husband.https://ellyswartz.com/

Wine People by Michelle Wildgen

Publishing August 1, 2023-Zibby Books-General Fiction-304pp

https://www.michellewildgen.com/

Book Summary:

What happens when two ambitious young women, opposite in every way, join forces in a competitive male-dominated industry?

Wren and Thessaly collide when they land coveted jobs at a glamorous New York City boutique wine importer. Hardworking, by-the-book Wren comes from a modest background and has everything to prove while Thessaly hails from a family of prestigious California growers—but she is plagued by self-doubt. Thrown together at work, where they’re expected to have exquisite palates, endless tolerance for alcohol and socializing, and the ability to sell, sell, sell, they regard each other with suspicion.

It’s only on an important European business trip—with everything on the line for both of them—that they unexpectedly forge an alliance that will change the course of their careers and personal lives.

With mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine, Wine People takes readers from France, Germany, and Italy to the Midwest and Sonoma. An utterly entertaining page-turner that explores how close friends can both misjudge and uplift each other.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Wine People is an eye-popping, intuitive glimpse into the business of importing wine, the pursuit of friendship, and the underlying impact of alcoholism. Michelle Wildgen, like a personal guide through wine country, melds operating and financing in the wine import industry with tasting rooms and vignerons. Learning about a myriad of wines along with the stock wine types in the industry are a bonus to the central plot.

Through main characters Thessaly and Wren, Wildgen creates tension and empathy, but also the stress of mixing competition in business with burgeoning friendships.  Thessaly, daughter of a Sonoma grower, golden girl of the industry and wine importing’s version of a supermodel is competing against Wren, with only five years restaurant experience, no special memories of food or childhood, but desperate to learn from observation. Both young women are coping with father issues. Wildgen uses Wren’s absent, alcoholic father and Thessaly’s famous father’s ‘nothing ever good enough’ approach to illuminate their anxiety, fears, and dependencies. Wren’s mask is competitive forthrightness and Thessaly’s excessive drinking.

Thessaly and Wren: “lifers” in the wine industry, learning to trust each other, eager to beat the ‘great men’. Ambitious, aggressive “Women in Wine.”

Wine People by Michelle Wildgen, highly recommended and enjoyed reclining on a chaise with a chilled Rosé.

Michelle Wildgen is the author of the novels Wine People (August 2023, Zibby Books— Pre-order here!), You’re Not You, But Not For Long, and Bread and Butter, and the editor of the food writing anthology Food & Booze. A former executive editor with the award-winning literary journal Tin House, she is a freelance editor and creative writing teacher in Madison, Wis. Since 2013 she and novelist Susanna Daniel have run the Madison Writers’ Studio, offering a variety of creative writing workshops and classes.

The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader

Publishes December 6, 2022 by Graydon House, 356 pp.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Molly Fader’s The Sunshine Girls is the story of BettyKay and how five buttons purchased as a practical joke linked students “filled with possibility” for a lifetime.  The lives and emotional perspectives of first year nursing students and their limited social choices in the 1960’s are woven with the politics and aftermath of survivors of Viet Nam and the glittering emptiness of Hollywood.

The Sunshine Girls begins at the end: the funeral for BettyKay Beecher in 2019, Greensboro Iowa. The appearance of Hollywood star Kitty Devereaux at the visitation throws the small-town into a tizzy. Kitty quickly brings BettyKay’s adult daughters, Clara and Abbie, into her Hollywood aura to share memories of nursing school days with their mother.

Fader deftly alternates timelines between 2019 and 1967 going forward; recounting the past years from alternate points of view through the eyes of farm girl BettyKay, her roommate, Kitty Simon, and Jenny, who volunteered to serve in Viet Nam to protect her brother. Fader’s compelling prose and emotional dialogue gleams through relationships; Jenny with her dad over serving in Viet Nam, angst of sisters Clara and Abbie, and BettyKay’s revealing diary entries. Characters’ mixed feelings on the war in Viet Nam and individual relief or repercussions from decisions are disclosed to form the politically historical backdrop. Fader infuses music and movies of the times, such as Star Wars, as touchpoints for readers, adding “life twists,” as puzzle pieces fall in and out of place.  

When all five buttons are located and BettyKay’s secrets revealed, healing must take place between Kitty, Clara, and Abbie.  After exposing the truth. is reconciliation possible for The Sunshine Girls?  

Molly Fader is the author of The McAvoy Sister’s Book Of Secrets. As Molly O’Keefe she is the USA Today Bestselling author of over 50 contemporary romances. She lives in Toronto Ontario with her husband, two kids and rescue dog. http://mollyfader.com/

Halfway to Harmony by Barbara O’Connor

Coming January 2021 for Middle Grades
Barbara O’ Connor-Now and as a first grader! https://www.barbaraoconnor.com/

“I now live in Asheville, North Carolina, with my husband and two dogs. I have one grown son. I love being a writer. I get to sit at my desk and pour my memories of my Southern childhood into my stories. Sometimes my characters eat boiled peanuts. Sometimes they go to the Smoky Mountains. Maybe they see kudzu vines covering up barns or listen to church music on the radio inside their trailers. They might catch crawfish in an icy cold stream or eat pickled okra from a jar. My stories have pieces of me in them – all mixed in with the made-up parts. That’s what writers do – mix in the real stuff with the made-up stuff. And they can wear their pajamas all day long if they want to. What could be better than that?”

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

A boy, a dream, and a truck.

Walter and his parents are grieving the loss of Tank, who joined the army and never returned to Harmony, Georgia. Tank’s younger brother, Walter, is drifting along the Chatahoochee River floating on his own despair while nightly tangled in a recurring dream. A new neighbor from Tennessee, Posey, moves in next door and just might be the kindred spirit Walter needs.

Posey is a gutsy girl with a three -legged dog named Porkchop and a near photographic memory. That phenomenal memory is an integral piece to the puzzling relationship that develops between Walter and Posey. Readers are treated to or maybe bombarded with trivia from Posey’s favorite books, Nuggets of Knowledge and Caesar Romanoff’s Rules for Making Friends. Walter and Posey become involved in the rescue and recovery of a man “that fell from the sky,” AKA “Banjo!” As the “not so subtle” Posey shares “rules for making friends” the lines of Walter’s anger and grief are slowly erased.

Readers’ hearts will ache at the quest for “normal” love and acceptance, motherly hugs and real smiles, that Walter is praying will return to his family since Tank “left.” Walter’s hopes and dreams for the future soar amidst a hot air balloon race and back to school nervousness. Meanwhile, Banjo’s eternally positive approach to life and quirky expressions along with Posey’s font of knowledge, helpful friendship hints, and determination will have young readers rushing online for a copy of Nuggets of Knowledge and practicing rules #1-7 for making friends.

“Good grief and grits” grab a copy of Halfway to Harmony for a chance to hear Tank saying, “Blow out them candles, little man, and I’ll show you my world.”

Your new friends will thank you for reading Halfway to Harmony. Five friendly stars-***** GR

Popularity Pact-Book Two SCHOOL SQUAD by Eileen Moskowitz-Palma

“Eileen Moskowitz-Palma divides her time between novel writing and teaching First Draft from Start to Finish and Writing for Children and Young Adults at The Writing Institute at Sarah Lawrence College.

Eileen’s debut Middle Grade novel, Camp Clique, the first book in The Popularity Pact series, was published in April 2020 at the height of the COVID pandemic.  As a result, all of her in-person events with schools, libraries and bookstores were cancelled. Rather than being discouraged, she created a solution by forming a free virtual writing camp and book club program to serve the kids affected by school closures. The response was overwhelmingly positive and the camps in high demand. She connected with kids from all across the country and caught the attention of institutions like the Providence Children’s Museum, Sarah Lawrence College, the Rhode Island Department of Education, Thalia Kids Book Club Camp based out of Manhattan’s Symphony Space, and the upcoming Orange County Children’s Book Festival. She will continue to serve kids during the 2020-2021 academic year with a variety of virtual writing and book club program options for schools, libraries, and parents. Email her at eileenmpalma@gmail.com for more information.

 Eileen lives in Westchester, NY, with her college sweetheart husband Douglas, their daughter Molly, and their Wire Fox Terrier Oscar, who is one snaggle-tooth away from being a doggy model. ”

POPULARITY PACT https://www.eileenmoskowitzpalma.com/about-1 School Squad- Available October 6, 2020

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

School Squad picks up right where Camp Clique left off. Maisy and Bea have endured the agonizing summer before seventh grade at Camp Amelia- together in the Sunflower Bunk. The camp has a huge competition at the end of the six-week session; the Sunflowers are the perennial winners. Bea and Maisy devise a plan where Bea will help Maisy not be a “loser” at camp, if Maisy will help Bea become a member of the coveted popular girls’ group, the “M&M’s.”

Maisy comes home from camp as the school year is about to start and finds out her mom, who’s been away in treatment, is coming home soon. Maisy’s family seems ready for the transition; especially Abby, her gymnast-Olympic driven sister. Mom might make it home for her next gymnastics meet! Maisy is having trouble coping with her mom’s return amidst fears of losing her mother-again. How will she ever be able to trust her mom and be sure she’s telling the truth?

Bea, on the other hand, comes home from camp to find that her recently divorced mom is dating her math teacher and her dad has proposed to his girlfriend, Monica, on Instagram! Her two darling daughters helped, of course. How will Bea find the “end” of this maze? How many roadblocks to happiness can one middle school girl handle?

Eileen Moskowitz-Palmer handles all the Snapchat, Instagram, texting, apps, and any other technology involved in being a seventh grader or parent of one, with all the aplomb of a seasoned middle schooler! She also hits all the emotional highs of receiving a snap from the “Glow up of the Year, or the M&M’s oohing and aahing over Bea’s new hair after the keratin treatment to the lows of Maisy finding out her grandmother has moved in! She will now share a room with her gymnastics obsessed sister; sweaty leotards included. It all feels so real and raw; the anxiety of being accepted, the fear of rejection, the grip of grief over losing a parent, or the heartwarming glow of finding a trustworthy friend.

“I had never felt lonelier than when I sat surrounded by all those fake friends.” Doesn’t that sentiment sum up the “middle school mindset” just perfectly? The Popularity Pact series holds treasures and lessons for all of us-child or parent-those life lessons we learn over-and over again.

Make a “Popularity Pact” – find a young or old reader who would appreciate joining the M&M’s, but also “feeling safe and seen.” 5,000 “likes,” 200 “shares” and 50-star emoji’s! GR