Copyright Date:
2020
Edition Date:
2020
Release Date:
01/07/20
Pages:
359 pages
ISBN:
1-419-73866-6
ISBN 13:
978-1-419-73866-1
Dewey:
Fic
LCCN:
2019016260
Dimensions:
22 cm.
Language:
English
Reviews:
School Library Journal
(Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2019)
Gr 9 Up-Kat and James have been inseparable best friends since the two girls met in kindergarten, but by senior year everything has changed. Kat, reeling from a breakup with Matty, meets Quinn and begins to question her sexuality and who she wants to be. Meanwhile, James has her world turned upside down when her mother announces that she and her father are separating. Kat and James find themselves facing big life changesalone. By the end of the year there's no avoiding the question of whether they somehow missed the biggest change of allthe end of their friendship. James shares her story starting at the end and going backwards, while Kat starts at the beginning and moves forward. The result is a captivating snapshot of a friendship that many teens will relate to. Spalding explores important questions while lyrically weaving the two stories together. When did it happen? How did happen? Why did it happen? Or perhaps the scariest question of alldid it just happen? VERDICT Teens will find comfort in this title that is hard to put down. A recommended purchase for all libraries serving teens. Elizabeth Portillo, Easton Public Library, CT
Two best friends grow up—and grow apart—in Amy Spalding’s innovative contemporary YA novel.
Told in dual timelines—half of the chapters moving forward in time and half moving backward—We Used to Be Friends explores the most traumatic breakup of all: that of childhood besties.
At the start of their senior year in high school, James (a girl with a boy’s name) and Kat are inseparable, but by graduation, they’re no longer friends. James prepares to head off to college as she reflects on the dissolution of her friendship with Kat while, in alternating chapters, Kat thinks about being newly in love with her first girlfriend and having a future that feels wide open.
Over the course of senior year, Kat wants nothing more than James to continue to be her steady rock, as James worries that everything she believes about love and her future is a lie when her high-school sweetheart parents announce they’re getting a divorce.
Funny, honest, and full of heart, We Used to Be Friends tells of the pains of growing up and growing apart.
“Amy Spalding knows that best friendships are love stories, and this one is complex, earnest, and unflinching. A must-read for anyone who’s ever had or lost a friend.” —Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda