Weatherly, Lee.
MISSING ABBY
New York : David Fickling Books, 2004
IL YA
ISBN 0385750536

(2 booktalks)

Have you heard?  Abby is missing.  To Emily, this news hits like a brick.  You see, Emily and Abby were best friends for awhile.  But Emily dropped Abby when the other kids starting teasing her.  Emily switched schools and hasn't really thought about Abby that much.  Until she runs into her on a bus.  And now she realizes that she might just have been the last one to see Abby before she disappeared.  Now she has to decide whether she should admit knowing Abby or not.  She doesn't want to teasing to start up again.  Abby is just so different that is just isn't cool to know her.  But if Emily doesn't tell what she knows, will Abby be hurt?

Booktalk #2

When Emma realizes she is the last to see her former best friend, Abby, she is drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery of her disappearance. Abby and Emma used to do everything together: they lived on the same street, played wildly fantastic “let’s pretend” and went to the same school Balden. Emma abruptly changed schools after an upsetting incident and broke off her friendship with Abby. She also moved from Abby’s neighborhood when her mother moved to Chicago, and Emma moved to her father’s house.

Emma meets Abby by surprise on the bus where Abby excitedly tells her about role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons. Although Abby invites Emma to play and to meet her new friends later that evening, Emma makes up an excuse not to come. Abby is disappointed and tells Emma, “The old you would have loved this game.”

As Emma gets closer to learning about Abby’s last day before she disappeared, we learn more about the disturbing event that Emma does not want to face. Missing Abby is a moving story with a mystery to solve and a troubled past to confront.  (Melissa Bowman, Melissa.Bowman@pisd.edu, Armstrong Middle School,  Lone Star Book Award nominee, 2006-2007)