I received this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tiveda, Colorado isn't supposed to be the destination. It's a town where families stay until they can make their way to someplace bigger and better. For 12 year old Jade, that was the plan, but her dad ended up with liver cancer, and they stayed. Meanwhile friends around her moved in and out of town at breakneck speed until she retreated to the safety of her notebooks. It was there that she created a best friend in Zoe. Meanwhile a boy named Clue has been watching her writing with growing interest. He sets into motion a chain of events that will change Jade's view of friendship forever.

I liked the story, it just moved a little slower than I found engaging.

Jade is a lonely girl. She has no best friend and her dad is fighting cancer. Instead of trying to make friends she write about a perfect friend - Zoe. But when a classmate, Clue, steals her notebook and sprinkles "magic" pond water on it Zoe becomes real. Zoe is just like Jade imagined - funny, popular, and she lives right across the street. But soon Jade realizes that she can't imagine every thought and action for Zoe and Zoe starts becoming her own person. Can Jade control this friendship?
This book was actually meatier and more thought provoking than it might appear initially - some good friendship guidelines and thoughts.

Friend or Fiction really took me by surprise. I had a feeling that this would be an interesting read, but this one definitely hit me in all the feels! I don't read many magical realism stories and this one reminded me that I really need to pick up more of them.

In Friend or Fiction, we follow our main character Jade. Life hasn't been normal for awhile. Her family moves around frequently and that hasn't made it easy to make friends. Things get even harder when her Dad is diagnosed with cancer and her best friend isn't the greatest friend after all. She has a clear idea of what the perfect best friend should be like and writes the adventures she wishes she'd have with that best friend.

This story sucked me in right away and I finished it in no time (it's under 300 pages, so a fast read anyways). I loved this story and it's very realistic. Jade has a lot to cope with and I think the author showed us how a kid her age would deal with everything. She doesn't make the greatest decisions, but no one is always perfect. The most important part of this whole story is that she really learns a lot while going. Friend or Fiction has great character development and is perfect for this age group. I think it's important they get stories that are realistic and some that they may be able to relate to.

Friend or Fiction is really touching and definitely brought tears to my eyes. I can't imagine what it was like for Jade. She has so much to deal with at a young age. Jade makes mistakes, but learns from them as well. This book is very friend and family orientated. Even though this book is filled with lessons, the journey is very enjoyable! I can't wait to see what this author writes next!

This book is an exploration of what it truly means to be a friend. But it also covers many other relevant topics for kids today, like economic challenges, terminal illness, and loss of friendship due to moving. Jade lives in a sort of "stepping stone" town---people don't stick around for long there. So, she's struggled to make meaningful friendships and has resorted to an imaginary friend named Zoe who she writes about daily. When Zoe comes to life, it seems perfect, but Jade struggles when Zoe fails to live up to her expectations of what a best friend should be. She also struggles to deal with her father's cancer and his inability to be completely present in her life the way she'd like him to be. I'm not going to lie: Jade is sometimes a difficult character to like, even when you do sympathize with her. She often acts selfishly (with both Zoe and a boy named Clue, who she holds a grudge against), and her perspective is skewed by her past experiences of loss. Still, even though I didn't always love Jade's attitudes or actions, I was always rooting for her to grow and learn from her mistakes. By the end of the book, Jade realizes that she hasn't been looking at friendship the right way.

The magical elements of this book are intriguing and mysterious. And I love the way that Jade's love of writing was woven into the story (and into the magic in an unexpected way). Overall, this was a lovely story!

***Disclosure: I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes. No other compensation was given and all opinions are my own.***

This book was an interesting concept and a cute read. I loved how passionate Jade was about write. I am sitting sitting on my thoughts and will give a more in depth review soon.

Have you ever had an imaginary best friend? What would you do if that friend came to life? Well, Jade doesn't have to imagine anymore. Her imaginary best friend actually came to life. Jade lives in a town in Colorado where people come and go all the time. Every time she thinks she has a best friend, they up and move and never stay in touch. She is so tired of being alone that she decides to write about the perfect best friend, Zoe. Jade and Zoe go on all kinds of adventures and are always there for each other. But one day when a boy from Jade's class, Clue, takes her notebook for the weekend, Jade feels lost. How can she survive the weekend without her stories about Zoe? When she goes for a walk she happens to see Clue by the nasty pond with her notebook. He drops a few drops from the pond and viola - Zoe appears in the house across the street. Jade has never been happier in her life. She can actually do all of the things that she has written about with the real Zoe. Things seem great at first, but when Zoe starts to get a mind of her own and starts to make other friends, Jade become very jealous because she doesn't want to share her friend. Then things get worse when Jade's parents surprise her and her younger brother with a vacation. Her dad is battling cancer and this trip is with other families who have someone battling cancer. Jade does not want to leave Zoe with the other girls at school because she is afraid she will lose her too. Jade is shocked to find Clue on this trip too, and it is then that she realizes that maybe she has had her nose in her notebook for far too long. Will Jade lose Zoe to the "sparkle girls" at school? Will Clue send Zoe back where she came from so that he can bring someone back to life? Will Jade and Clue realize that the friend they both have been longing for could be right in front of them? Read this incredible book about what it truly means to be a best friend!

I loved everything about this book! I was drawn into Jade's world from the first page and her loneliness broke my heart. And on top of that her sadness over her dad's illness made my heart wrench for her even more. I was so happy when Zoe came along for her, but I quickly realized that Zoe did not know what it meant to be a best friend. I loved how Abby Cooper worked her magic in this story of love, loss, family, and friendship. Don't miss this one!

I can see this book becoming a popular book club read among the middle-grade readers. When reading you feel like you are Jade and feel her emotions so deeply. What she is going through is so common among our children. A sick parent and the life they know is turned upside down.

The magical realism that is part of the plot is used nicely. It didn’t make me cringe as some do. Middle graders will love it. I think my fourth-grade cousin will love this book.

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, Charlesbridge, through NetGalley. Any and all opinions expressed in the above review are entirely my own.

The story, first of all, felt very original. The part that I liked most was that the main character, Jade, was aspiring to be writer. She is writing "oppservations" in her diary and that were the most fun parts for me, since the questions she asks there, are pretty philosophical and would be good for Middle Graders to think about. Sadly, I was annoyed by the main character most of the time, and didn't enjoy the story that much. That made me give the book 2 stars.

Pros
Original story: The story was an original one. A realistic story with a twist of magic. I'd love there to be less Fantasy stories and more Magical Realism stories. The story has a deep emotional layer in it and the final chapters were pretty good. I got the message behind the book and for that I applaud the author.
Oppservations: The oppservations from Jade were mature questions and I had hoped to see more of that maturity in her behavior. It felt like the oppservations were written by a totally different person. It did make you feel a little bit more involved in the story, because unknowingly, I was still pondering about the questions that Jade asks herself.
Clue: My favorite character in this book. He's sweet and honest and just felt like the only real person that was in this book.

Cons
Shallow characters: There could've been so much more development in the characters in this book. Zoe doesn't even have parents and Jades parents feel shallow even though something big is happening with Jades father. Zoe doesn't know certain words in the story, because Jade made her up, but that only comes forth in one or two scenes, because how can you communicate with someone that only knows certain words? Jade is using her notebook to keep Zoe for herself out of jealousy. She doesn't even want to go on a family trip, because she is afraid her friend is going to hang out with other people? I just couldn't at some point...
Confusing: I was cringing a lot while reading this book. Everything felt very stereotypical, and I'm not sure if that is what we want to teach our Middle Graders. The story is kinda weird, because no one is freaked out by Jades made up friend coming out of her notebook. Some stories in the notebook have already happened, and some stories that Jade wrote still have to happen, so that was confusing. At the end, the message didn't really get through to me, because I was just annoyed with Jade and the story overall.

Overall
I'm pretty sure it's harder to write Children's and Middle Grade books if you're an adult author, because how do we know what kids of those ages like? Well, I do know what I want to teach kids in life, and I do know what I like as a reader, and this story just kinda missed the mark for me. I am curious what other readers and younger readers think, tough. The few oppservations in the book were fun and the message behind the story was nice, but I was mainly annoyed with Jade and the story.

Abby Cooper’s middle grade novel, Friend or Fiction, begins with the common problem for this age of finding true friendship. Keeping friends for Jade Levy is complicated by her location in a town where people never live for long. She observes that nobody lives long in the transition town of Tiveda, Colorado because everybody longs to be anyplace else. After she loses several friends who move away and promise to keep in touch but do not, she creates her own friend Zoe in her writing notebook.

Isolating herself to write at lunch time, Jade assumes the Sparkle girls who group together in the cafeteria have shunned her. She loses herself daily in her story, reporting her word count to Mrs. Yang, her English teacher, when lunch is over. Mrs. Yang reads her work and inserts good writing habits and instruction into the support she gives Jade to be a good writer, but also encourages her to live her life fully.

Jade reads her account of Zoe to her father and it seems to cheer him after his cancer diagnosis. When it gets into the hands of her classmate with a nickname of Clue because he gives hints to answers, he does some magical realism with pond water and brings Zoe to life. Jade controls this new best (imaginary?) friend through her writing until that becomes disappointing. She must make some decisions about what true friendship entails and open her mind to new perceptions of Clue and the Sparkle girls.

This is a good book for a middle grader with the empathy to care about real world problems and the imagination to enjoy magical realism.

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC of this entertaining and inspirational read. Friendship is such a huge and important topic for middle schoolers and this book can help so many see that their struggles are not that different from others. I think the humor plus the serious tones really balanced out the story.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I’ll be honest: at first, I wasn’t really sure about this book. I thought it was a great concept but I wasn’t a huge fan of how Jade treated Zoe. BUT I was very happy with the resolution and how the book ended. I thought it did a great job exploring grief, fear, and how to navigate early friendships.

I thought this was a cute and clever book that is helpful for middle-grade aged kids. I think it was good that it showed her dealing with hard situations. I think kids could really related to Jade on a lot of levels.

Thank you NetGalley, Abby Cooper, and Charlesbridge for the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

From the Publisher:
Description
One creative middle-schooler discovers that the best friend a girl can have is the one she makes herself in this charming magical realism read.

Jade's life hasn't exactly been normal lately, especially since her dad's cancer diagnosis. Jade wishes her family could leave their no-name town in Colorado already--everybody else does sooner rather than later, including every best friend Jade's ever had. So she makes one up. In the pages of her notebook, she writes all about Zoe--the most amazing best friend anyone could dream of.

But when pretend Zoe appears in real life thanks to a magical experiment gone right, Jade isn't so sure if she likes sharing her imaginary friend with the real world. To keep her best friend (and even make some new ones), Jade learns how to cope with jealousy, that friends should let friends be true to themselves, and that maybe the perfect best friend doesn't exist after all.

I found it to be a charming story for girls. To invent your own best friend is an amazing thing, getting lost in your own stories. Very magical, well written. Great character development and the narrative flowed nicely.

This was so fun! A touch of magic in an otherwise realistic friendship story made this fun to read. I loved all the ways Jade grew through the course of the book - her personal journey was the most satisfying part of this for me. TONS of material for a book group or a classroom read aloud to dig into - cancer, grief, isolation, family, friendship, etc. I also loved all the great writing and writer-related pieces of the story. Don't miss this one.

Friend or Fiction is a super cute and straightforward middle grave novel about family, friendship, and writing. The magic of an imaginary friend/character coming to life is a fun concept perfect for the intended audience. The story addresses typical themes found in middle grade novels such as friendship, jealousy, life's hardships (in this case a cancer diagnosis), and family bonding, all with a positive ending. The writing advice throughout is also helpful and appreciated. Friend or Fiction is a decent middle grade contemporary with a dash of magic. While it'll speak to the intended audience, it may be a little too bland for other age groups.

Friend or Fiction immediately caught my attention because of the cover, and then summary pulled me in. Imaginary friends are such a big and important phenomenon, yet so tricky to cover. Cooper used Jade's writing and I thought it absolutely brilliant.

Unfortunately the book let me down somewhat, as I wasn't fond of how easily Jade used her control over Zoe, even if she at times felt uncomfortable about it, and her clinginess and jealousy, even though I understood. It put a bit of a sour taste in my mouth, as I started out loving Jade, only to like her less and less as the story went on. However, because of the things I didn't like, there are some really important lessons in here for kids, that might otherwise not really hit home.

I do want to give a major shoutout to Clue/Gresham, for being so kind and helpful even if Jade is awful to him all the time.

Last, but not least, this deals with cancer in the family as well. And not just as a background thing- it's a big part of the story. Jade worries about her father all the time. I got really emotional over something related to it, concerning Jade's little brother.

Overall, I give Friend or Fiction 3,5/5 stars, rounded up to 4, as I did really enjoy reading it. It's a fast and easy read, dealing with some serious things. Would definitely recommend!

How do you make friends in a town when everyone is always moving away and your family stays?

"Friend or Fiction" is a beautiful story about what it means to be a good friend as well as showing that there is no such thing as a perfect friend. Cooper explores some extremely heavy topics with a lightness and grace that allows this story to still be a lot of fun. Jade is such a relatable character, just wanting to fit in, and she is a great role model for bookish kids, showing that it is good to be different. Cooper also deals with the fact that everyone is going through things that other people cannot see and shows kids that they should be more accepting of those around them rather than writing off people quickly.

The magical realism of the story makes this story feel different and unique while still being relatable and quite realistic.

The need for a friend, life in a small town that is a way station to somewhere else, and the reality of families coping with cancer, are all themes in this well plotted magical realism tale. To fill the need for a BFF, Jade, an aspiring writer, has created fictional Zoe, and she records her adventures in a cherished notebook. Heeding the encouragement of her sixth grade English teacher, whose advice is sprinkled throughout the book, Jade takes every chance she can to write about Zoe and Jade, and every day after school, Jade shares her stories with her cancer weakened father, who is in the final days of chemotherapy. The family and school characters are so realistic that the magical realism simply slides into the story unnoticed. All ponds have magic water, and friendship is possible. Definitely recommend!

Jade and her family live in a town where people, including her best friends, come and go all the time. She loves writing and she's longing for a friend so she has decided to write about Zoe, her imaginary best friend. She writes about their perfect days and amazing friendship. One day, a girl named Zoe appears in her class and happens to live across her house. Is it just a coincidence? or is she Jade's imaginary friend comes to life?

Jade is such an incredible character. I loved her passion for writing and her love for her family. I loved her "Oppservation" entries in her journal. She's an aspiring writer which is being supported by her parents and teacher as well. It's just so heartwarming to read. One of the main themes in this book is friendship and the author handled it flawlessly. Same goes with the health condition of Jade's father. It's heartbreaking yet very inspiring. The writing is amazing and age-appropriate as well. The character growth in this book is on point.

I would like to read Clue's perspective or Zoe if possible. I also wanted to know more about the "magical" pond. But we don't get everything we want so it's totally okay for me because I really enjoyed this book. It's a middle-grade novel mixed with magical realism which was right up my alley.

This book reminds us to live in the moment and value the important people around us. This is also a great read for aspiring writers (both young and adult) out there.

*Huge thanks to NetGalley for the earc. This did not affect my overall opinion of the book.

Living in a town, where people frequently come and go, left Jade feeling alone at a time, when she really needed a best friend. Her solution was to create a new bestie, Zoe, but when her new friend emerged from the page into real world, it prompted Jade to consider the complexities of friendship and the role writing took in her life.

• Pro: I could not resist Jade. I felt so much empathy towards her, as she battled her loneliness and sadness due to her father's recurrent cancer, but I also loved her introspection, her affection for her family, and her passion for writing.

• Pro: The entire concept of Jade's Oppservations was a win for me. I adored the idea of reflecting on the dual nature of things. These Oppservations were very keen and revealed a lot about Jade's emotions and worries.

• Pro: The focus on writing as an outlet and a craft was wonderful, and I also liked how this was used to help Jade reflect on her family, friendship, and feelings about everything was was going on in her life.

• Pro: Things had changed for the Levy family following her father's illness, but they still had so much love for one another, and it was a special treat being able to spend time with them all.

• Pro: Friendship was the central focus of this story, as Jade struggled with what it meant to be a friend, have a friend, and share a friend. The idea that you can be friends with someone, but they don't belong to you. It's definitely something that challenged me in my youth, and I felt it was addressed rather well in the story.

• Pro: The book leaned towards fun and upbeat, but having it set in an economically challenged town and containing a subplot of Jade's father's battle with cancer added a bit of weight. That said, it was handled beautifully and with sensitivity, and left me feeling rather happy and hopeful.

Overall: A lovely story of family and friendship with a touch of magic, that was thoughtful and heartwarming.