I received an electronic ARC from ABRAMS Kids through NetGalley.
What happens when one friend moves on and leaves her best friend behind? This looks like how the plot will unfold but Sales offers some different perspectives as she shares about her characters. Readers meet Vanessa first and the book is told from her perspective. Her best and only friend Bailey has formed other friendships and stopped hanging out with her. Vanessa decides to create a museum to Bailey in an old museum she discovers on a walk. Readers see her thoughts on each item and develop a clear impression of Bailey's actions. It's only in the later part of the book that readers see Bailey's side shared. By the end, the story of this friendship and these two young women is not clearly defined as wrong and right. Both made mistakes and both were careless and inconsiderate with their friendship. Other subplots run through the book and bring depth to the young people. Sales makes her point to look beyond the surface and listen to others' stories. I appreciate the way she wove people's stories through the museum.

I feel like the problem with YA novels is that they are novels made in a truncated way for kids. We don’t get to know the characters as well or peek into their minds, but we see this very textbook style of writing: intro, main character develops, foreshadowing (always so much), character has a problem (but it can get worse), problem escalates, comes to a head, then problem solved at last. This book is no different. Vanessa starts middle school and doesn’t understand why her bestie hates her, and also can’t stop picking the skin around her fingers. Her dad is deployed, her brother is in high school and her mom seems to cope by making really weird anecdotes.

As much as it sounds I didn’t love this book, it is so touching for the age it was written for. I think most kids go through a growth period where their friends shift and change, which is very hard to navigate. Sales does a great job here making her characters lovable, age appropriate and perfectly cast in their roles. This book is wonderful for families and children alike- would make a great read-aloud at night! I LOVED that there’s no romance. None. Zero. No kissing, no thinking about the other sex…just a book on friendship and how it comes to be. Big thumbs up.

To call this book relatable is an understatement - it’s about friendship and perceptions, and a little bit about museums too. Vanessa and Bailey have always been best friends - they do everything together. That is until they both start middle school, and suddenly Bailey doesn’t want to be friends anymore. Vanessa realizes that it’s something that happened slowly; until she looks back, she didn't even realize it was happening. It reminded me a lot of Miranda and Sal from When You Reach Me. Often when friendships end, it *feels* like some big catastrophic moment, but really it’s a series of smaller events, over a long period of time. And there is no time of life when a series of smaller events feel like catastrophe than middle school.

Soon after she and Bailey split, Vanessa finds an abandoned museum and she realizes what she wants to do – turn the space into a monument to her friendship with Bailey. And once Bailey sees the museum, she’ll see how much they mean to each other and want to be friends again. But of course it’s not that simple. Along the way, Vanessa makes new friends, and shares her museum, and learns a bit about herself in the process.

I really liked Vanessa as a character. She feels very much like a real 11-year-old: pretty self-centered, pretty sure the world should exist in black and white as SHE sees it…all of that tracks. Vanessa’s also dealing with some anxiety about her father, who is serving overseas in the military, and her own nervous habit of picking at her skin, which everyone seems to think she is doing on purpose, but which she really can’t control.

I also loved the abandoned museum setting (and the multiple references to the Isabella Stewart Gardner art heist! Such a fascinating story). It’s the reason I requested the ARC in the first place - I love museums, and I also love looking at photos of abandoned places. The idea of taking over an abandoned museum is super appealing. In the age of cellphones and helicopter parents, I suppose it’s a *little* hard to believe a group of kids could just hang out in an abandoned building (and then start giving tours of said building) without ANY adults catching wind of it. There are some real early 90s vibes to the whole thing.

Overall this was a great read - some wonderful messages about friendship, and some drama I feel like a lot of middle school girls can relate to. (There’s some tertiary stuff about Vanessa’s brother dealing with high school, but given that it’s Vanessa’s story, we only hear a little bit about it. Part of me wanted to hear from Sterling too, but that would have derailed the narrative a bit, I think)

This book started a little slow for me, but it definitely won me over with the heart and message in the end. I think it would lead to amazing class discussions on friendship, loss, and the true meaning of what is important in life. I highly recommend this book!

I loved this book so much that I have preordered copies for every niece I have that is age appropriate. A truly lovely story that calls to mind some of my favorite books from my middle school years, the themes of friendship are only the tip of the iceberg for what I took away from this book.

Loss, growing up, friendship, parent/child relations, and heritage all factor in to this vaguely magical tale about a girl who opens her own museum dedicated to a friend she is afraid of losing forever. It becomes something bigger than she ever dreamed. Adults can learn just as much from this book as the kids will.

I hate to give a one-star rating, but I have to be honest. I found the story to be neither interesting nor believable, and the characters to be neither likable nor believable.

The plot centers around Vanessa, a middle schooler facing a common problem: a best friend who's moved on and no longer wants to be friends. On a random walk around town, she finds an abandoned museum and decides to make use of it. She creates an exhibit with items relating to her former friend, Bailey, including signage explaining what they represent. When her brother and a few other kids find out, they want to create exhibits also. Soon word gets around and kids are visiting like it's a real museum.

I have to be honest, I can't see middle schoolers finding this book interesting. For starters, Vanessa is demanding, judgmental, moody, and insensitive. In short, she is not the least bit likable and I could see how Bailey would not want to be friends anymore. She's also needy and overbearing. Her interest in creating a shrine to her old friend, in an abandoned building of all places, shows how odd and desperate she is. Middle schoolers do not do this in today's world. 100% not relatable. Middle schoolers do, however, change. Interests change. Personalities change. This happens with adults too. After a while, you realize you don't have as much in common as you'd hoped and you move on. I'd like to see a book that addresses this in a healthy way, rather than showing a girl who isn't the nicest person in the first place, acting incredibly childish, as a way to deal with her frustration/sadness.

Besides that, an older brother, also wanting to create an exhibit while hanging out with his younger sister, off the charts not believable.

This book was predictable. The resolution came too quickly and too easily to be satisfying. My 13 year old daughter read this and agreed. It was simple and would be best for younger middle grades. Could also be considered a "gentile read."

Sadly, this book just wasn’t for me. Going into this book, I thought it was going to be different then what it was. I thought it was going to be more magical and whimsical. I did enjoy the museum bits but the descriptions of her skin peeling just made me cringe. I know it’s a real life experience that the author is bringing awareness too but I just couldn’t handle reading about it. Our main character, Vanessa, wasn’t a very likable character to me either. She just seemed like a know it all and didn’t feel like she really had any character growth. Maybe that’s just how she was supposed to be written but I just wasn’t a huge fan. All thoughts and opinions stated in this review are solely my own. Thank you so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of the arc in return for an honest review.

Vanessa is a middle school, struggle with a common but serious middle school problem. Friendship, Friendship begins to change at that age and Vanessa cannot understand why her former best friend now wants nothing to do with her. Vanessa explorers her past to discover why Bailey as disappeared from her life, Through this process she creates artifacts in her own museum of their former friendship, and Vanessa discovers a lot about herself and Bailey, and friendship.

This year, Venessa is dealing a lot. Her father is in the military and stationed in Germany and she faces the loss of her best friend Bailey. She doesn’t know why Bailey doesn’t seem to like her anymore.

Venessa finds an old abandoned museum that is slated for demolition. After a school trip to a museum, Venessa decides to make her own exhibit in the abandoned building—a tribute to her friendship with Bailey. As she writes the description cards to accompany each of the items, she realizes maybe she wasn’t a good friend to Bailey and that’s why Bailey drifted away.

Others find the building and her exhibit and ask to make their own. Together they start to fill the museum. They invite friends to view the exhibits. Venessa learns from friends who were familiar with her relationship with Bailey, that sometimes Bailey wasn’t kind. Now Venessa thinks the breakup was Bailey’s fault and not her own.

Are they friends or not? Well, you’ll have to read the story for yourself. Friendship can be complicated, especially when we make assumptions about what a friend is thinking or feeling. Some things are out of an individual’s control and some rifts take time and new perspectives to heal as we all grow and change.

Grade level 3 – 7, Ages 8 – 12
Available May 2023

A wonderful book about the ways that friendships can develop and change. The characters were engaging and the plot had surprises for the reader.

This was a cute story. It was an easy read and I'm thankful to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to The Museum of Lost and Found!

Vanessa is having an especially rough year. Her career military dad is overseas, her mom has set down roots and refuses to move yet again and her best friend, Bailey has "bailed" on their friendship. All this anxiety is making her "bad habit" of picking at her skin worsen and no matter what she tries, she can't break the habit. Finding an abandoned museum which is scheduled to be demolished, Vanessa builds a collection based around her former friend, Bailey and tries to describe each piece as it related to their growing and eventually not "everlasting" friendship. Along the way, she encounters other kids who have a need to curate and display collections which mean a lot to them and so some unlikely new friendships are formed. This is a story about making and losing friends, growing out of childhood, understanding conflicts can happen at any age and finding resolutions in which one can still carry the good bits of each relationship forward. People and relationships change, they may not be the way you want them to be or how you remember them, but if you're willing to allow change to happen, new paths to reconnecting may appear.

Vanessa and Bailey have been best friends since they were really little, but lately, Bailey has been distant. Vanessa can't really figure out what's wrong. One day while she's out wandering, Vanessa discovers an abandoned museum and decides to curate an exhibit on her friendship with Bailey, hoping it will offer some clues. Her museum is discovered by a few unlikely people and turns into something much bigger than a place to think about old junk. Slowly, Vanessa realizes that most things in life eventually go away, a fact brought on most poignantly by her father's extended absence during his military tours. Vanessa has to decide what's worth keeping and if she even can get back something valuable that she's lost.

Although there are a lot of themes in this book, from friendship, growing up, learning empathy, coping with parental absence, making new friends, fitting into a Jewish heritage, and even body-focused repetitive behavior, Leila Sales managed to bring everything together into a really compelling story that didn't leave all sorts of loose ends. I feel like I learned a lot from this relatively short book, even as I grappled with the reality of confusing middle school friendships and complex family relationships. It never felt like too much. I'd recommend this book to anyone who's ever lost a friend as well as young people who are looking for inspiration to dream big.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Museum of Lost and Found by Leila Sales

The Museum of Lost and Found is a lovely book about friendship and finding your own path. Leila Sales develops an interesting plot using an abandoned museum as a setting. The idea of finding a valuable piece of artwork and connecting it to the artist enhanced the path of the story.
Eleven-year-old, Vanessa, is not sure what happened to her friendship with BFF, Bailey. Vanessa is also trying to sort out her family. Her parents are separated. Her father serves in the military and lives overseas. And Vanessa has a skin-picking habit that everyone nags her to stop. When Vanessa stumbles across an abandoned building near the park, she decides to use the old museum for her own exhibition. Some new friends, including her high school brother, Sterling, join her in creating exhibits which they eventually share with other friends.
Unfortunately, the group learns that the building is intended to be torn down in a few weeks. To make matters worse, the artist of the mysterious painting has come to town and her mother’s TV station is filming a segment about the long-lost painting. All this is happening as Vanessa’s father is unreachable after a missile strike where he is stationed.
The Museum of Lost and Found is a bit slow-moving at first. As the museum comes alive, so does the story as Vanessa maneuvers her way through friendships, family, and finding herself. Leila Sales’ writing draws you into the story and makes this book a pleasure to read.

I continue to love Leila Sales's writing. This is a book about friendship and how it can ebb and flow through life. Vanessa and Bailey don't mean to be mean to each other, but it seems that way. It takes both of them time and memories to help them see that even though they have grown apart and have made other friends, they can still make time for each other.

A lovely middle grade read about friendship and momentos of friendship.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

I love this book! In the voice of Vanessa, a 7th grader whose father is stationed abroad and whose best friend, Bailey, appears to be a new *former* best friend, even though Vanessa doesn't understand why, The Museum of Lost and Found moves deftly between a preteen's outer world, with its confusing friend and family situations, and inner thoughts of worry, frustration, misunderstanding, and hope.

There's a lot Vanessa can't control in her life, but she finds an outlet for creative expression and a sense of control when she discovers an abandoned museum and puts together an exhibit telling one story of her most important lost friendship. Through the museum, she discovers that she's part of a community of people who have lost relationships and things that have mattered to them. She finds her voice, her courage, and a sense of belonging that strengthens her.

So much thanks to ABRAM"S kids for providing a free e-copy for review.

Thank you to ABRAM"s Kids for sending me an advanced copy of The Museum of Lost and Found in exchange for an honest review!


I really enjoyed this! as someone who grew up in a similar situation like Vanessa. i really related to a lot of what she went through. this story really shows you that people can grow and change and i highly recommend this if you know someone who reads middle grade and is struggling with friendships.

Best friends navigating changes to their friendship. Kids banding together to preserve memories and forge new friendships. Very real concerns for middle schoolers and children of active duty parents. Museum of Lost and Found by Leila Sales has it. This book poignantly explores the growing pains of best friends, school friends and families and even challenges of BFRBs or OCD behaviors. I thought it did a good job of explaining both sides of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Museum of Lost and Found is clever and full of heart. Relatable for teens and/or adults, the story illustrates the pains of growing up and being human through a tangible project. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.