I am thrilled to be hosting a spot
on the NOT THE WORST FRIEND IN THE WORLD by Anne Rellihan Blog Tour hosted
by Rockstar
Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
Author: Anne Rellihan
Release Date: February 6, 2024
Publisher: Holiday House
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 272
Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/NOT-THE-WORST-FRIEND-IN-THE-WORLD
Description:
Can Lou Bennett keep a secret? She’ll
do just about anything to prove herself to her new friend—and the best friend
she betrayed—in this debut novel that is a modern-day Harriet the Spy with
high emotional stakes.
It’s the thirty-fourth day of sixth grade at Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Catholic School in Missouri, and eleven-year-old Lou wishes she could rewind
time.
Lou wants to go back to the ninth day of sixth grade—the day before she
fought with her best friend Francie and said the terrible, horrible things she
can’t unsay. Or better yet, she would go back to fifth grade when Francie was
still the Old Francie.
Then the new girl, Cece Clark-Duncan, passes Lou a mysterious note. It says she
was kidnapped. (!) If Lou can help Cece, maybe she can prove she’s not the
world’s worst friend.
But as observant Lou uncovers the complicated truth about Cece’s family, she
starts to panic. Can she help Cece without hurting her? Or will Lou end up
losing another friend instead?
Anchored by an outstanding voice and a page-turning mystery, this remarkable
debut novel honors the powerful middle school friendships that can both break
and heal a tender eleven-year-old heart. Perfect for fans of Fish in a
Tree and My Jasper June.
1
Cece Clark- Duncan passed me a note on the thirty- fourth day of sixth grade.
If she had passed it twenty-five days earlier, I might have ignored it. Or worse, showed it to Francie.
At first, I didn’t believe the note was meant for me. Yet there was my name, plain as day, carefully written across the front in bubbly print— Louise. She’d even put a heart above the i.
My name is Louise Bennett, but the fact that she’d written “Louise” revealed her newness. Only teachers and my grandmother call me Louise. Everyone else calls me Lou. Francie shortened it the day I met her in kindergarten. She said Louise sounded like a grandma name, so she made it better. I liked Lou more, too. Louise held on to her mom’s leg at the playground because she was scared of the slides and the big kids. Lou was brave and smart and funny. She had to be. Francie Fitzpatrick was her best friend.
Emphasis on was. Past tense. Because then sixth grade happened. And Tommy Maguire happened. And the dumb fight happened. And just like that, I became invisible.
So there I was, trying to pretend I didn’t care about any of it, when I got a note from the only sixth grader who was a bigger outsider than me.
It happened during our first geography quiz of the year. The end of September and it was still blazing hot in Mayfield, Missouri. I sat at my desk sweating through my white uniform shirt. Sweat pooled under my arms and my legs stuck together underneath my plaid skirt. My dark hair hung in clumps on my neck and frizzed around my freckled face. But being invisible made it easier to forget the frizz and focus on my plan.
My plan had one step.
Step 1: Get Francie to talk to me.
It was written on a clean page of my leather- bound notebook. I had underlined Step 1 about a million times, drew doodles all around it, but was no closer to accomplishing it. A plan isn’t much of a plan with only one step. I was stuck remembering those text messages and hearing myself say the terrible, horrible things I couldn’t unsay over and over again. It had been more than three weeks, and that day kept replaying in my mind like a movie. I about threw up every time I watched it.
I didn’t blame anyone for hating me. If I’m being honest, I hated me, too.
Excerpt from Not the Worst Friend in the World / Text copyright © 2024 by Anne Rellihan. Reproduced with permission fromHoliday House Publishing Inc. All rights reserved.
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
(1) winner will receive a finished copy of NOT THE WORST FRIEND
IN THE WORLD - US Only.
Ends February 20th, midnight EST.
Tour Schedule:
Week One:
|
2/5/2024 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
|
|
2/5/2024 |
Excerpt |
|
|
2/6/2024 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
|
|
2/6/2024 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
|
|
2/7/2024 |
IG Post |
|
|
2/7/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/8/2024 |
Excerpt/IG Post |
|
|
2/8/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/9/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/9/2024 |
IG Review |
|
|
2/10/2024 |
IG Review |
|
|
2/10/2024 |
IG Review |
Week Two:
|
2/11/2024 |
IG Review/TikTok Post |
|
|
2/11/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/12/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/12/2024 |
IG Review |
|
|
2/13/2024 |
IG Post |
|
|
2/13/2024 |
Review |
|
|
2/14/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/14/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/15/2024 |
IG Review |
|
|
2/15/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
|
|
2/16/2024 |
IG Review |
|
|
2/16/2024 |
Review/IG Post |
