Chris Makes a Friend

by Álex Gino

From the award-winning author of MELISSA, a sweet and tart story about unexpected friendship and family reconciliation.

Chris does not want to be spending the summer with their grouchy grandmother and social butterfly sister. But they don't really have a choice, once their mom leaves them at Grandmother's house. They can, however, try to escape whenever they want to—into the woods, where they encounter another kid who is the friend they need to survive the summer.

Only...there's more to this friend than meets the eye....

Genres: Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction, Queer, Contemporary, LGBT

Audible Audio

First published November 4, 2025

Reviews

[Laura Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely early MG book about a quiet, introverted, bookworm tween forced to spend the summer with her annoying little sister and her grandparents because her mom requires a complicated surgery and a long recovery time. Good representation of a kid whose parent has chronic pain. Love the booklist at the end!

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take my review with a grain of salt, I am aware that as an adult I am not the target audience for this novel.

I really liked seeing the Chris and her sister become closer over the course of the novel, because at the beginning I was struggling a bit. At points in the novel her dislike for her sister seemed a bit harsh and over the top, so I was glad to see some sibling love at the end. The novel has great representation of chronic pain. Chris' mother has to have a complicated surgery, so Chris and her sister have to go stay with their grandparents for the summer while mom recovers. The novel is full of important conversations weaved throughout the narrative.

I read the arc just as my library was winding down the Summer Reading Program so I particularly enjoyed how much of a bookworm our main character was!

[Cesco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alex Gino always writes thought provoking stories. Chris Makes a Friend is no different.

As much as I’m out of the intended audience, this book grapples with loneliness and familial reconciliation. The relationship between Chris and Becca was realistic and touching. The level of self discovery in this book is also very important for young readers!

[TheNextGenLibrarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poignant story about a tween going through many changes in her life.
☀️
It’s officially summer and on her traditional family ice cream trip to kick it off, Chris learns she and her sister will have to spend the summer at her grandparents’ house in the country. Chris’s mom needs surgery for her chronic pain and will need time to rest and recuperate. Chris is bummed because her best friend is going off to camp and they won’t get to spend much time together now that Chris has to leave too. They promise to read 72 #books together over the summer months, but once Chris gets there the phone calls and texts between them get further and further apart. Missing her old life, hating her annoying and social butterfly sister and bored with not much to, Chris meets someone new while exploring the woods for reading spots. But there’s more to Mia than meets the eye.
📖
This MG book felt fresh and unique to me. It deals with several issues kids face, as well as highlights so many modern titles—there’s even a full list of the 72 novels readers can tackle at the end of the book. I loved the open conversations Chris has about gender, feelings and the connections she makes with those around her throughout the summer. This title releases November 4 from @lxgino @scholastic

CW: chronic pain, isolation, loneliness, abandonment, surgery, medical content

[Sacha · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars

Alex Gino is a true gem in the middle grade world, and this newest effort reveals several of the reasons why that's been the case for the last few years.

Chris is excited to spend the summer at home with her best pal, but when her mom has to go in for another surgery to address her chronic pain, Chris learns that she will be spending summer with her grandparents...and her little sister Becca. None of this makes Chris happy, but it does cause her to feel sad and isolated.

As is consistently the case, Gino addresses so many issues in a young reader-friendly and approachable but honest manner. Chris and Becca have a sibling relationship that any readers with siblings (or cousins or similar situations) will absolutely get. They drive you wild, and you also love them the most. But at that age, it's mostly the former. It's also hard to navigate changing friendships at all stages, but this is one of the hardest. Chris explores this issue in a number of provocative ways, and her grandparents help articulate some of the more mature layers of this for readers (and for her). As always, Gino is coming in with some solid gender and sexuality representation. This time, they are also featuring a character, Chris and Becca's mom, who suffers with chronic pain. I loved the way this was handled and think this will be one of many reasons librarians and teachers recommend this book to specific readers.

Another unexpected but worthwhile inclusion? An incredible reading list at the end of the book. Don't miss it.

This is another great one from an important author.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Scholastic for this arc, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[LiteraryCryptid · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heartfelt story about family, friendship, and the unexpected changes life can throw at you.

Chris expects to spend her summer with her best friend Vicky completing their challenge of reading 72 books each. These plans are altered when Chris finds herself and her sister staying at their grandparents house when their mum announces she's having surgery for her chronic pain - And Vicky is now spending half the summer at camp. But the two friends promise to keep in touch and not let things get in the way of accomplishing their goals.
Except messages are left without response, calls go unanswered, and Chris finds herself worrying more and more about both the isolation of her grandparents' small town, and the new divide between her and her best friend.
Suddenly there's Mia - Another young book fan spending her summer in town. The two get along like fire and Chris spends more and more of her time with Mia. But things are exactly what they seem.

I absolutely devoured this book! It highlights conversations about mental health, identity, family, and friendship that many young readers can connect with. Additionally, for more immersion, there is a list of 72 novels for those who want to explore the novels Chris was reading over the summer. It's sweet, heartfelt, and a great middle grade novel.

Publishing: November 4, 2025
Thank you to Scholastic for the opportunity to read and review this title.

[Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the E-ARC. I am looking forward to recommending this title for middle grade patrons in my library, and I love the inclusion of an inclusive book list for middle grade readers at the end of the book! If I were a beta reader or editor I might have suggested keeping the gender conversation(s) to be between Chris, her stepparent Frank, and her sister as a way to introduce new terms and concepts of gender for young readers. I also am not sure about the use of a "community only term" (butch) for this audience. But representation is important and young readers can only learn to understand the world if they are able to see it in their lives, in person, in print, or in media. I hope that most young people don't try quite so hard to exclude and show hate toward their siblings as Chris does, but many will relate to the struggle of being asked to tag along to events that they don't enjoy or being expected to entertain younger siblings when they are hoping for quiet. I loved that the creation of an imaginary friend, even in an older child, was not treated as a symptom of mental illness or neurodivergence, but simply as a creative way for a young person to deal with stress and lonliness. Excellent disability rep without sugar-coating chronic conditions and how they affect the whole family. 3.5 stars rounded up

[Britt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this book. You could feel Chris' frustrations and understandings with having to deal with her little sister and grandparents over the summer. The book has great representation of a disabled parent that is not dumbed down for middle grade. At one point Chris even worries that Frank, her mother's partner, might want to leave because Frank has to constantly take care of her mom and them. There is stress and anxieties that Chris deals with in this book that is very well written. I thought it was interesting that the friend Chris makes at her grandparent's was actually imaginary! It was not something I expected but it is something that older children do and I enjoyed her talking about it with her grandma and mom. I liked the brief talks about gender in the book. It was great for Chris to be like at first I thought I was this, but then I realized this, etc. It is brief but found that to be okay as it was not the main part of the book. I loved that the author included a list of all of the books that Chris read at the end! What a great resource for readers! Overall, I thought this was a good story and could sympathize with Chris even though I was the outgoing annoying younger sibling.


Thank you to Netgalley and Scholastic for this eArc in exchange for an honest review.

[michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting title focusing on the way that some kids deal with their anxiety. Chris's mom has been sick for a while, dealing with such chronic pain that she can't parent her kids. As the summer begins, Chris has all of these plans on how to spend their break with their best friend only to be thrown the curve ball of being sent to live with their grandparents. Their younger sister is also shipped off, but the two have very little in common. Summer was supposed to be spent reading and swimming with their best friend, but now they can only connect via Facetime and text and their friend is making new friends and staying busy at camp. Chris's grandparents are big fans of outdoor/offline time, so Chris finds themself discovering new locales to sit and read. One day, another kid comes along, but is it the friend that Chris needs?

There are many things that Chris has to deal with throughout this book, many of which our tweens are dealing with. Another great Alex Gino book.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley for the free ARC!

When Chris gets sent to live with her grandparents for the summer out in an isolated part of Western Massachusetts, with her little sister, she isn't expecting much. She is usually content to spend her days reading books with her best friend. However, this summer they will not be together. and Chris must entertain herself. Finding her little sister's incessant soccer practices tin the backyard to be annoying, she decides to read down by the stream where she meets a friend. With an unexpected twist to their friendship, worry about her mom's neck surgery and recovery this summer,, tension with her little sister and her best friend from back home, Chris must navigate through a lot.

Alex Gino paints a vivid picture and describes the characters well.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Makes a Friend: four stars. Gino once again succeeds at creating a thoughtful and accessible story for young (and older) readers. Great depiction of a parent with a disability--we see how Chris's mom's chronic pain affects the family, but it's never presented as a tragedy--and a nonbinary adult. Chris can at times be an annoying main character, but believably so, and it's satisfying to see her eventual growth. The book ends up dipping into unreliable-narrator territory, which was briefly confusing (it's very much not what I was expecting), but ultimately is explained clearly enough.

Very cool that Chris's list of books is included!

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very lucky to read an early draft. This book is exceptional, even for Gino. Fans of all their books will be excited and rewarded by this big step into unchartered territory. It's not like anything I've read before. I didn't know how much I needed it, and young readers will too. I can't wait for everyone to read it!

[Jessica Lerbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute and sweet.

[Aspen~Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not terrible. I didn't think it was good compared to Alex's other books, but it was overall a good read

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC provided by Scholastic

Chris is going into 6th grade and is pretty sure she identifies as a cisgender girl, and lives in New York City with her mother and younger sister, Becca. As the school year ends, her mother, who suffers from chronic back and neck pain, and her girlfriend Frank, have big news: the mother is undergoing surgery to help her condition, and Chris and Becca will be spending the summer with their father's parents, Nana and Papa, in rural Massachusetts. Chris is angry that she won't be able to spend time with her best friend, Vicky, with whom she has planned the Great Summer 72 Book Challenge. Since there are 72 days in vacation, they plan to read that many books together when they are not playing video games. Vicky says not to worry, since she is going to a theater camp, and they can still read independently. It doesn't help that Chris will have to spend a lot of time with her sister, who is annoying in the extreme, and will only be allowed to have screen time in the mornings, before Nana takes away her tablet. There are upsides; Papa makes delicious waffles in the morning, and when Chris is forced outside in the afternoons, she does find a nice spot by a creek to read. Eventually, she even finds a friend, Mia Yaring, who is also staying with her grandmother, and who also enjoyes the Magical Mystical Vidalia fantasy series that Chris does. Chris' mother recuperates more slowly than expected from the surgery, and the visit is extended when she has to go back for another procedure, although Frank says that everything is going fairly well. At the end of the story, we do learn some secrets about Mia, but Chris has learned that her sister isn't all bad, and that her upcoming middle school experience won't be so terrible, especially since Vicky has remained her friend.
Strengths: There are very few depictions of parents with chronic health conditions that impact the lives of their children, although there are probably more parents in this situation than there are deceased middle grade parents, so the mother's chronic pain was an informative inclusion. Summers with grandparents are always interesting, even if Chris is annoyed that Nana takes away her tablet and refers to her and Becca as "girls". There is lots of modern thought and language surrounding gender, which is not surprising given Gino's body of work. Mia ask Chris "So you're a girl?" to which Chris replies "As far as I know", and there are other inclusive moments. It is good to see that Chris and Becca get along better at the end of the book. I'd love to see more books that involve subplots that deal with sibling relationships.
Weaknesses: This seemed a bit young because of the major twist in the plot (that I don't want to reveal). While this is probably an accurate depiction of summer for modern day tweens, it made me sad. Most of the time, the girls seem to be on screens. Nana lets them play the entire morning, and there are often family movie nights. While Becca practices soccer, neither of the girls seem to have any initiative to do much. This makes for a rather slow moving story. There are not grand adventures.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like gentle summer time tales like Kendall's The True Definition of Neva Beane or Guillory's Gus and Glory. There is a list of the 72 books that Chris reads over the summer at the end; only two are imaginary!

A historical note: The grandparents get the newspaper delivered, and Chris enjoys reading the Parade Magazine, so this means the book is set before 2022.