The Hard Kind of Promise

by Gina Willner-Pardo

Summary: Sarah has always found Marjorie’s odd behavior entertaining and charming. She never questioned their promise, made at age five, to be best friends forever. Not until 7th grade, when Marjorie’s smelly lunches, love of old movies, and insistence that Sarah play a big blue alien for her film production project cause Sarah to start to pull away. When she overhears, from a bathroom stall, a classmate call her a loser for hanging out with Marjorie, she begins actively pursuing new friendships with girls in her choir class. These girls are classic seventh-grade snarky, yet somehow also endearing. Sarah awkwardly tries to include Marjorie, who refuses to fall into anyone’s idea of normal, while simultaneously trying to be popular and become her own person. Sarah’s emotional turmoil and guilt over the changing of the friendship is painfully and realistically portrayed, but gentle humor (Marjorie shows up to Cotillion proudly sporting a 120 year old “vintage” gown) keeps the story light. A sensitively drawn and satisfying conclusion will have girls nodding their heads with understanding as Sarah struggles with the promise she made years ago. A heart-warming story about the unexpected lessons life teaches, through the eyes of a girl experiencing it for the very first time.

My thoughts: This is not normally the kind of book I would pick up on my own, but since I reviewed this one for a library magazine, I had to read it. I'm so glad I did! This is such a sweet story! It's not published yet, so watch for it when it comes out next month!