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Reviewed by:
  • A Friendship for Today
  • Karen Coats
McKissack, Patricia A Friendship for Today. Scholastic, 2007 [176p] ISBN 0-439-66098-X$16.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-7

It's 1954, and twelve-year-old Rosemary Patterson has to say goodbye to her beloved elementary school in the suburbs of St. Louis because the Supreme Court has ruled against segregation. She and her best friend J.J. are set to attend the same formerly all-white school when J.J. is stricken with polio, leaving Rosemary to brave the new school on her own. Her chief nemesis, a poor white girl with a bad attitude and a bigoted family, is also in her class, and it isn't long before the two girls forge a friendship based on Rosemary's unwillingness to ostracize Grace because of her poverty, and Grace's reciprocal gesture of not taking a dare to call Rosemary the n-word. The school year proceeds smoothly thanks to the enlightened perspective of Rosemary's teacher, and Rosemary is happy to finally get J.J. back just as Grace moves away. This Midwestern story of school integration is an interesting departure from Southern accounts of Sturm und Drang at the schoolhouse door; the racial [End Page 338] problems that Rosemary faces are interpersonal and they are offset by people of good will, who represent the majority of the folks she encounters. More important are the friendships and Rosemary's growing understanding of the difference between ones that last and the ones that are impermanent, a distinction made poignant by her parents' divorce. Her rescue of a badly wounded cat provides a teachable extended metaphor for J.J.'s partial recovery, as well as a sentimental touch. According to an author's note, the book is based on McKissack's own experiences, which explains the occasional flashes of adult insight Rosemary demonstrates and the catalog of nostalgia that frames the beginning of chapters that mark new years. For the most part, though, Rosemary's voice is fresh, credible, and engaging, and readers will relate to the pangs of making new friends and losing, albeit temporarily, old ones.

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