The Goodbye Time

Twelve-year-old Anna lives a wonderful life in New York City. Her pretty and stylish mother works at a publishing house, comes home happy and upbeat, and is a good cook. Her history professor father is a warm and gentle man who is welcoming to Anna's friends, especially her best friend Katie, whom he calls "Katiedid." Her 15-year-old brother, Tom, is a genius who has been accepted at Harvard. His girlfriend, Anka, is beautiful, smart and polite. Katie doesn't have such a wonderful life. She spends a lot of time at Anna's apartment because things aren't so great at home. Her single mom works hard and struggles to make ends meet. At the end of the day, her mother is tired and grumpy. Her older sister Gem, whom the girls call "Bug Eye," doesn't have many friends and is weird and mean to the girls. Katie's mentally disabled brother's behavior is becoming dangerous. Most days after school, Anna spends time at Katie's house, where the girls create fantastic stories and characters, complete with English accents. Katie usually has dinner there, and Anna wishes she could stay all the time. At school, everyone is excited about the upcoming graduation. The girls are looking forward to graduating, and Anna's mom takes them shopping to find dresses for their big day. Then life at Katie's goes from bad to worse after her brother has a violent episode and harms their mother, who is advised to put him in a home. Katie is angry and upset after she hears her mom's decision, and she lashes out. She sees Anna's life as being perfect and blames Anna for not understanding how she feels. Anna is upset, too. Her brother is leaving home for college. Katie doesn't want to be her friend anymore, and she has no one to tell about her first kiss. THE GOODBYE TIME is a slim book about the importance of friendship and the inevitability of change. The main characters, Anna and Katie, are likable. Katie is realistic, but I found Anna a bit too perfect to be believable. Nonetheless, I think middle-grade girls will enjoy reading this title, which gently shows how saying "Goodbye" can lead to a wonderful world of "Hellos." --- Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt

I'm so glad the bright red dress with a title of "The Goodbye Time" caught my eye. What could this be about?, I wondered. What I found in the pages was a great story about friends and all the kinds of things that happen between these realistic, touching, sometimes sad, sometimes funny and always rememberable characters. I laughed, wondered and thought of my own friendships as I was eagerly drawn from page to page and chapter to chapter. The ending left me waiting for the next book and even writing (in my imagination, of course) what might happen next between these friends. As a psychotherapist I highly recommend this book for anyone who has a friend. That's alot of people. B. Fanning, psychotherapist