My Forever Friends (Friends for Keeps Series #4)

by Julie Bowe

Overview

Ida May is back in the fourth book of the beloved Friends for Keeps series!

Friendships are shifting for Ida May, and all because Jenna and Brooke (former BFFs) are feuding. No one knows what started the fight, but soon the girls in class have taken sides, with Ida May stuck in the middle. Does Ida have what it takes to understand the true nature of Jenna and Brooke's friendship and figure out the way to bring them, and the rest of the class, together?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142421048
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	06/14/2012
Series:	Friends for Keeps Series , #4
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.52(h) x 0.64(d)
Lexile:	530L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Julie Bowe is a full-time author who knows how to strum a guitar, play a really good game of foosball, and had her first story published in fifth grade when she entered a contest in the local newspaper and won first place! Julie is the author of the Friends for Keeps series and lives with her family in Wisconsin.

Editorial Reviews

Even readers unfamiliar with the series will find nuanced characterization in Jenna. . . [and Ida’s] concern for her friends’ relationship remains spot-on. . . .[T]his engaging presentation portrays the crossroads friends face as they navigate school popularity, classroom crushes, and the various problems on the path to maturity.” — School Library Journal

From the Publisher

Gr 3–4—Ida May learns the complex, and often harsh, realities of fourth-grade class dynamics firsthand. Her former friends are at war, with leaders Brooke and Jenna constantly hurling vicious insults at one another. When Jenna and her little sister spend time with Ida after school due to Jenna's mother's high-risk pregnancy, Jenna's complicated home life reveals the reasons she desperately seeks control through bossing others. The girls' backstabbing and bullying pulls no punches, and the catalyst for peace, the premature birth of Jenna's brother, conveys an honest vulnerability as Brooke recalls the former best-friendship vows she swore with Jenna and works to revive them. Even readers unfamiliar with the series will find nuanced characterization in Jenna, though an abundance of secondary characters occasionally distracts from the otherwise solid child-centered dynamics. Ida's first-person narration sometimes falters in its earnest delivery ("I think about Brooke. And Jenna. And how their talents fit together") though her concern for her friends' relationship remains spot-on. Overall, this engaging presentation portrays the crossroads friends face as they navigate school popularity, classroom crushes, and the various problems on the path to maturity.—Meg Smith, Cumberland County Public Library, Fayetteville, NC

School Library Journal

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