What Defines True Friendship?
Description
If it were up to Mattie Markham, there would be a law that said your family wasn’t allowed to move in the middle of the school year. After all, sixth grade is hard enough without wondering if you’ll be able to make new friends or worrying that the kids in Pennsylvania won’t like your North Carolina accent.
But when Mattie meets her next-door neighbor and classmate, she begins to think maybe she was silly to fear being the “new girl.” Agnes is like no one Mattie has ever met—she’s curious, hilarious, smart, and makes up the best games. If winter break is anything to go by, the rest of the school year should be a breeze.
Only it isn’t, because when vacation ends and school starts, Mattie realizes something: At school Agnes is known as the weird girl who no one likes. All Mattie wants is to fit in (okay, and maybe be a little popular too), but is that worth ending her friendship with Agnes?
Details
- Rating: ☆☆☆☆
- Title: Let’s Pretend We Never Met
- Author: Melissa Walker
- Audience: Middle Grade
- Ages: 8-12
- Length: 256 pages
- Publisher: HarperColins
- Release Date: May 15, 2018
My Thoughts
Mattie and her family move from North Carolina to Philadelphia to be near
her grandmother. As most know, any move can be tough, but this move is in the middle of the school year, during winter break, so it’s especially hard for 11-year-old Mattie. The family settles into an apartment building where Mattie happily discovers that a girl her age lives next door.
The girl, Agnes P. Davis is creative, quirky, exuberant, and fun to be with. So you’d think Mattie would be off to a great start with her new move. But things aren’t always as simple as locating a friend.
It seems there’s trouble on the home front. Mattie’s father is working long hours at his new job and her mother can’t find work, things that begin taking a toll on the whole family.
Eventually, winter break is over and Matte is faced with the challenge of fitting into an already established classroom at school, a class Agnes will be sharing with her. But Agnes misses the first three days of school since she’s discovered an abandoned baby bird that she feels needs to be cared for.
As Mattie begins to make friends in her class and even a boyfriend, she has a new challenge to face. Her friends look at Agnes as a complete weirdo, though adults are more apt to call her eccentric but sweet.
Mattie is now faced with a hard decision. Should she side with her newly acquired school friends? After all, when Agnes returns to school is fairly certain that admitting she is friends with Agnes will lose friendships.
Mattie is left with many decisions to work through. Should she risk trying to help her new friends recognize and accept Agnes for who she is, a highly intelligent girl with a few unusual traits? Or should continue on the same route: friendly at the apartment building but ignore Agnes at school?
Though most adults in the story quickly see that Agnes is sweet even with her odd qualities like having no filters, not wanting to be touched, and examining things more carefully than most, the students are threatened by her quirkiness. The story never mentions why Agnes is a bit different, but her behavior indicates a degree of autism.
What Concerned Me
Nothing
Final Thoughts
This is a wonderful story to read in a classroom setting since it can open lots of discussions. And, of course, I would recommend it to individual children 8 – 12 as well. The characters feel real with honest dilemmas that students are often faced with.
I think the main point of this story is not to point out the exact cause of Agnes’ unique differences, but rather to point out that she should be valued for the child she is.
Rating
About the Author
Melissa Walker grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and is the author of eight young adult novels, including the Violet on the Runway series and Small Town Sinners. In the nonfiction world, she is a magazine editor and writer who works from the comfort of coffee shops in Brooklyn, where she lives with her husband and two young daughters. Find Melissa on Twitter @melissacwalker or visit www.melissacwalker.com.
