Boston Book Festival 2020
Thursday, October 22, 2020
YA: Friendship and Its End
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There’s something to be said for romance, to be sure, but often the relationships that sustain us the most are the ones with our friends—and the heartbreak we feel at a friendship’s ending is every bit as devastating as any romantic breakup. The outcome of Amy Spalding’s We Used to Be Friends might not be a surprise—it’s right there in the title—but Spalding uses surprising narrative structure to trace the evolution of the relationship between two (former) best friends, with one girl’s story moving forward in time and the other’s backward over the course of their tumultuous senior year of high school. In When You Were Everything, Ashley Woodfolk also uses creative narrative chronology—alternating between Then and Now—to construct a story of painful endings, new beginnings, and the perspective earned by the passage of time. And in a story that incorporates fantasy and reality, Justin A. Reynolds's Early Departures finds a young man, Jamal, using a new technology to bring his former best friend temporarily back to life following an accident—to make amends and say a final goodbye. Make plans to join your friends for this bittersweet session about teen friendships, hosted by Cathryn Mercier of Simmons University.
This session will also be broadcast live on Boston Neighborhood Network Media television stations.
Ages 13+
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