By: A.W. Downer
Format: Available in Paperback, ePub, and MOBI
Genre: Contemporary Friendship
Best Friends Playbook
What do touchdowns and tea parties have in common?
Absolutely nothing.
Eleven-year-old football superfan, Hannah Taylor, has watched her friends leave the homeschool group one by one. It was okay, at first, because she always had Beth, her best best friend. They were a team for science experiments, for co-op classes, and on the football field.
But just as they’re starting sixth grade, Beth’s parents put her in private school. Now Hannah is the only middle schooler left in the homeschool group.
She’d better come up with a new play fast. The only kids even remotely close to her age don’t like football, and they don’t play sports.
They play princess.
And they want Hannah to join their team.
Meet A.W. Downer, the debut author of Best Friends Playbook.
SageReads –
A delightful read!
Betty Vanderwielen –
– Rich understanding of the trauma of losing a “best” friend
Best Friends Playbook is about a homeschooled eleven-year-old girl, Hannah, who is terribly upset to find out her best friend, Beth, will be going to private school. Even worse, there is now nobody in Hannah’s grade level for her to play football with. The girls closest to her age only want to play princess.
I enjoyed learning a little bit about homeschooling from the book — I had no idea they had regular group meetings, classes and activities. But the loss Hannah feels when her best friend is no longer part of her homeschool experience is universal. I can remember being that age and crying many nights because my best friend pulled away, developed different interests from mine and eventually became someone else’s best friend. Downer realistically portrays both the grief and the “recovery.” Especially fun was the way Hannah envisions everything in football imaging’s and later in princess imaging.