Today, 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!
About The Book:
Title: NOT THE WORST FRIEND IN THE WORLD
Author: Anne
Rellihan
Pub. Date: February 6, 2024
Publisher: Holiday
House
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 272Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/NOT-THE-WORST-FRIEND-IN-THE-WORLD
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.
Not the Worst Friend in the World
By Anne Rellihan
Excerpt for
Rockstar Book Tours
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.
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.
About Anne Rellihan:
Anne Rellihan is a former elementary school teacher and an alumna
of Teach for America with a master’s degree in education from Columbia
University. She lives in Kansas with her husband and four children. When she’s
not writing, Anne volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate. This is her
debut novel. Find her online @AnneRellihan and annerellihan.com.
Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub
Giveaway Details:
1 winner will receive a finished copy of NOT THE WORST FRIEND
IN THE WORLD, US Only.
Ends February 20th, midnight EST.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tour Schedule: Week One:
Week Two:
Closet of Dreams by Mark Ukra and Tara Mesalik MacMahon, and illustrations by Donna Dyer
