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    The Friendship Matchmaker
    The Friendship Matchmaker
    The Friendship Matchmaker
    Ebook126 pages2 hours

    The Friendship Matchmaker

    By Randa Abdel-Fattah

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    Lara Zany is known throughout the school yard as the Friendship Matchmaker-kids who need to make or keep a best friend call on her expertise and follow her hard-and-fast rules to find friendships. Lara's documented everything from friendship categories (the BOBF, or Bus Only Best Friend; the NL, or Nerdy Loner; the LBC, or Loner By Choice) to strategies (MAKF, or Make and Keep Friends; BTFP, or Bus Trip Faux Pas). And she's sure that her manual will one day be published by none other than Harry Potter's publishers.
    But when new kid in school Emily Wong questions whether following such unbendable rules is really the way to true friendship, Lara and Emily decide to compete by each finding a LL a best friend. But Lara, a LBC, doesn't bank on finding her own best friendship in the most unlikely of places... In the tradition of Clueless or Emma, this is a funny and heartwarming story of celebrating individuality and finding acceptance.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJul 17, 2012
    ISBN9780802728333
    The Friendship Matchmaker
    Author

    Randa Abdel-Fattah

    RANDA ABDEL-FATTAH is the author of the YA novels Does My Head Look Big in This?, Ten Things I Hate About Me, and Where the Streets Had a Name. Her books are published around the world and she regularly gives talks and workshops at schools and writers' festivals. Randa lives in Sydney, Australia, where she works as a litigation lawyer and is also a human rights activist. www.randaabdelfattah.com

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    Reviews for The Friendship Matchmaker

    3/5

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    • 2/5
      Lara believes herself to be a Loner By Choice establishes herself as a Friendship Matchmaker, a sort of counselor and platonic dating service in one. Then she gets into a competition with a new girl who believes Lara's rules for friendships are insane and mean giving up everything you are, so are these friendships really genuine?

      Predictable ending, bland plot, only minor acknowledgement that The Rules really are terrible ideas (pretend to love a thing that someone else loves, make sure your hair and clothing are completely nondescript, etc). Upper-elementary; even 6th graders will probably find this too young for them.
    • 4/5
      This is a sweet, girly story. Judy Blume without the edge and just right for upper elementary school readers. The likeable narrator will win over young readers (her heart's so clearly in the right place, even if her methods seem suspect). While the ending's a little too neat, kids will easily identify with the trials and tribulations of making new friends.

    Book preview

    The Friendship Matchmaker - Randa Abdel-Fattah

    cafeteria.

    Chapter 1

    I stood at the Potts County Middle School front steps with my Manual tucked under one arm and a clipboard under the other. The morning bell hadn’t rung yet, and the courtyard was filling up on the first day of school.

    I was ready. I’d spent the last week of summer vacation adding some new chapters to my Manual and changing some earlier ones. My mediation sessions had made me rethink a few strategies, especially in the Rules for Field Trips chapter.

    Suddenly, I felt a tap on the back of my arm and turned around. A boy, probably in fifth grade, stared up at me.

    Excuse me, are you Lara Zany?

    I nodded.

    So you’re … The boy hesitated.

    I knew exactly what he wanted to ask. And I was very pleased with his respectful, adoring look, so I flashed him a big smile.

    The boy started again. Are you Lara Zany, the one and only Friendship Matchmaker?

    Boy, did I love hearing those words.

    Yes, I am.

    The boy sighed with relief. My name is Dean. I’m new. They said I should come to you. Can you help me?

    I leaned down and looked the boy in the eye.

    Dean, I said, taking out my clipboard and scribbling his name on a notepad, I’m Potts County Middle School’s official Friendship Matchmaker, and I’m here to help. Now, let’s get started. Tell me everything about yourself, and I’ll find you the right friend in no time.

    By the time the bell had rung, I’d matched some new kids in the fifth grade (Sophia and Hannah—loved ponies and enjoyed chocolate-covered peanuts; Dean and Zak—both sports obsessed; Naj and Edward—enjoyed collecting insects and soil samples) and scheduled a FIMS (Friendship Intervention Mediation Session) for recess between Marisol and Rachel from the sixth grade, who had been best friends until Rachel found a new best friend over the summer.

    I made my way to the seventh-grade lockers. My classroom was open so I went inside and found a seat at the front. I put my pencil case on the desk and took out my exercise book covered in fluorescent-pink paper. My Top Secret Friendship Matchmaker Manual was tucked safely in the tray under my desk.

    I glanced around the classroom and grinned. Everybody was either in a pair or foursome. Of course, I’d been responsible for matching most of the friends in the room. Except for Bart Franklin and Joseph Took, who had met at their Saturday karate classes—something told me they would eventually need me, though. The two only had karate in common. They’d soon realize that they couldn’t talk about black belts six hours a day without eventually using the moves on each other.

    I sat alone, but I preferred it that way. Nobody dared to think I was a TL (Total Loner). I was an LBC (Loner by Choice). I’d made that very clear in all my pep talks and FIMS, and I knew that the general school population regarded me as the coolest and smartest seventh-grader around.

    The only problem being an LBC was that for some dumb reason our teachers were obsessed with group work and making team efforts. I’d tried to reason with Ms. Pria, but she simply refused to see my logic when it came to group activities or teamwork. I’d much rather work on my own, but if people chose to sit next to me in class or paired up with me for class work, I let them. Sometimes it couldn’t be helped, and anyway, I’ve always had a heart of eighteen-carat gold.

    Sometimes I’d pair up with a TL in class. I wasn’t able to help everybody. Some people continued to be TLs in spite of all the effort I put into helping them make friends. That’s because they didn’t follow the Rules detailed in my chapter So You Have a Friend? Don’t Be Too Confident! Learn How to Make and Keep Them.

    I mean, you can take a donkey to water and make it drink, but you can’t force it to burp, or whatever that saying is.

    I made sure that the TLs knew I didn’t have time for friends. I was in the business of helping other people make friends.

    I sat quietly, waiting for Ms. Pria to arrive. Being the school’s official Friendship Matchmaker had certain responsibilities, and I had to set an example. After all, most people wanted to be like me. If I was burping the national anthem like Chris, or making paper planes out of the pages of my notebook like Ralph, I’d probably start a trend. So I had to always be on my best behavior. It could get tiring, but when you have a heart like mine the sacrifices are easier to put up with.

    The classroom was buzzing with noise as everybody swapped stories about their summer.

    Everybody knew Ms. Pria was the best of the seventh-grade teachers. Rumor had it that Mr. Laidlaw picked his nose and wiped it on your textbook when he thought you weren’t looking. And Ms. Simeon was obviously off in the clouds. So really that just meant Ms. Pria was the best of the worst.

    While I waited patiently, I thought about the morning’s events. The first days of school are always my busiest. New kids, kids transferred from other schools, kids whose best friends had dropped them in favor of a new best friend during the summer, were all begging me to help them. So already I’d sorted out a number of friendship pairs and foursomes.

    (I have a strict policy against trios but the reasons for this are too disturbing to talk about just yet.)

    This morning had been busier than usual, and I’d been forced to put off some FIMS requests. There had been a lot of best-friend swapping over the break. But the new kids who’d transferred from a nearby school had to take priority.

    Finding a friend for one of them, David, was going to be a personal challenge for me. The kid clearly had issues, judging from the way he talked to his basketball.

    Ms. Pria walked in. Good morning, class, she said, with the same enthusiasm as somebody entering a lion’s den. I hope you’re all looking forward to another year of learning. We’re going to start with English this morning. I want you to break into teams of three and do the comprehension exercise I’m about to write on the board.

    I couldn’t believe it. A group project already? I raised my hand, annoyed with Ms. Pria.

    Yes, Lara? Ms. Pria said.

    I placed my hands on my lap and flashed her my winning smile. Ms. Pria, could we please do the exercise alone?

    No, Ms. Pria said and turned back to writing on the board.

    I sighed patiently. Ms. Pria really didn’t understand anything and needed the obvious to be explained to her.

    But, Ms. Pria, how can we do our best in a group when everybody’s at different levels?

    "Lara Zany, it’s called teamwork!"

    I could not believe that it was only 9:03 a.m. and Ms. Pria had already lost her temper.

    Tanya Zito, late on the first day, entered the classroom quietly and plunked her books down onto the desk.

    Tanya was a Total Loner. Last year I’d tried, through many Induction Seminars, to help her. I’d warned her that people didn’t like her obsession with sniffing school supplies before she used them (she especially liked rulers). But by the end of the year I’d added Tanya to my secret Terminal TL list and moved on to other more hopeful cases.

    So when Tanya sat down next to me and started sniffing my pencil case, I tried with all my might to control my temper. Ms. Pria had already lost it. Somebody needed to set a good example.

    I started to copy the passage on the board.

    You need to copy it, too, I told Tanya, who had moved on to sniffing a pink highlighter.

    Just then the classroom door was flung open. The seventh-grade coordinator, Mr. Smith, walked in, followed by a girl.

    Ms. Pria, Mr. Smith said, this is your new student, Emily Wong. Class, be sure to make Emily feel welcome.

    For

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