Best Friends for Never

After moving from Brooklyn to small-town Massachusetts, Hattie makes friends with a trio of girls who are a few notches down from the “tippy-top of the sixth-grade popularity pyramid.” To fit in and avoid being labeled a nerd, Hattie hides her obsession with a fantasy book series, her love of cat-themed T-shirts, and her disdain for team sports, a deception that renders her a victim of a mysterious “jinx” that has long plagued the town. For Hattie, the curse has consequences with echoes of Groundhog Day and It’s a Wonderful Life: each day she must reintroduce herself to her closest friends, who have no memory of who she is. Vrettos (Burnout) makes good use of an entertaining premise to dig into middle-school pettiness and social politics as Hattie bonds with the school’s dethroned queen bee and with an insightful teenage girl who works at the local historical society, where Hattie searches for the secret to reversing the jinx. Writing with a light touch, Vrettos balances universal adolescent topics of self-honesty, acceptance, and stereotypes. Ages 8–12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (May)