FORTUNE TELLERS, by Lisa Greenwald, Katherine Tegen Books, May 7, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (ages 8-12)
Three recently separated friends reconnect through the paper fortune tellers they made in third grade in Fortune Tellers, by Lisa Greenwald.
What if your fortunes really came true?
Once upon a time, Millie, Nora, and Bea were best friends who loved slumber parties, exploring their Manhattan neighborhood, and making fortune tellers with their Magic Markers. Now, in the summer before seventh grade, they haven’t spoken in over a year—thanks to a big fight, the pandemic shutting down their school, and each girl moving away for different reasons. The girls routinely check each other’s social media, but none of them can muster the courage to reach out, even if they might want to.
Then their long-ago paper fortune tellers start popping up in the most unexpected places. The fortunes carry some eerily accurate wisdom for each girl: Your future is hidden in your past. Hold on to the memories. Go back to where you started. Could this be the push the girls need to reconnect and reunite? Or is the gap between them too wide to mend? —Synopsis provided by Katherine Tegen Books
There’s nothing horrible about Fortune Tellers, but there’s nothing that great about it either. It’s sort of a forgettable middle-grade novel about friendship that tweens will probably enjoy but not devour.
The book is told through alternating viewpoints. The girls to different locations and make new “friends” that they each don’t like for differing reasons and struggle to fit in to their new communities. They each face separate “trials,” but honestly feel interchangeable.
Author Lisa Greenwald’s writing is comfortable enough, though not very dynamic.
Overall, Fortune Tellers is an OK read that I suggest checking out from the library prior to purchase.
Copyright © 2024 Cracking the Cover. Unless otherwise noted, all books — digital and physical — have been provided by publishers in exchange for honest and unbiased reviews. All thoughts and opinions are those of the reviewer.
