The Best Friend by Melody Carlson

The Best Friend by Melody Carlson is the second installment in her Life at Kingston High series for young adults. I'd recommend this book for 7th-12th graders. Melody once again proves that she's got what it takes to captivate young readers with stories that they will relate to and learn from. You'll meet Lishia Vance, a girl who's feeling abandoned by her church friends, looking for someone to relate to her. She re-friends Riley Atkins and has an overnight new image, but things aren't always as easy as they seem and Lishia begins to question Riley's motives and her own eagerness to find true friendship.

There were a few things about this book that I didn't like. One character yells at another and calls her, "you bi--". Yes, I get that the character is an evil person, but did we have to know what she was going to say? I think, "she let out an expletive" would have gotten the same point across.

The other thing is that Ms Carlson is showing her age by using phrases as, "her main squeeze" and "don't be such a wet blanket." Teens these days not only don't know what those mean, but probably have never heard them before.

Other than the half swear word, I recommend this book. Teen girls can learn a lot from Lishia's experiences with Riley and the other popular kids.


Available June 2012 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

This book was provided for review by The Baker Publishing Group.