Cassie Was Here

Author: Caroline Hickey

Publisher: Roaring Brook Press

Publication Year: 2007

Lexile: 610L (This book is not in the Lexile Book Database. I used the Lexile Analyzer to get this value.)

Most of the readers will be: Middle to late elementary school girls.

Reader's Advisory: For another book on a girl a little too old for an imaginary friend, read Still There, Clare by Yvonne Prinz.

Summary: Bree's family has just moved to a new house and suddenly Bree's imaginary friend, Joey, has returned to keep her company. Bree's brother Reid and her parents don't like Joey. They think she is too old for an imaginary friend. They are all really angry when Joey tells Bree to tell Reid to jump out of a tree, and he breaks his arm. Then, while Bree and Joey are playing Nancy Drew, they see a girl getting out of a taxi with a suitcase and going into one of the houses. Bree's mother encourages her to make friends with the new girl, so Bree introduces herself to Cassie. It turns out that Cassie isn't new. She has left her boarding school to come stay with her grandmother. Cassie is a couple years older than Bree and invites her to smoke the day that they meet! A few days later, Cassie cuts off Bree's long hair and gives her highlights that make her look just like Cassie. She may be a little bit of a trouble maker, but Bree thinks she is fun and exciting. Joey doesn't like Cassie at all and she stops talking to Bree. Bree is pretty upset about losing Joey, but not as upset as she is when she and another neighborhood girl, Anna find Cassie and Reid making out in the school! Things go from bad to worse when Reid tells Cassie and Anna about Joey. Bree can't figure out if Cassie has just been using her to get close to Reid or if maybe Cassie really does like her. By the time Cassie leaves her grandmother's house later in the summer, the two girls finally start to understand each other.

My favorite passage:

We each grab a glass and sit back. Anna starts telling me stories about things Cassie did the last time she visited, like painting her grandmother's metal trashcans hot pink and stealing the stop sign from the corner. Anna doesn't sound impressed, just matter of fact, and I start to wonder how close they are. They don't seem like good friends, but they've obviously hung out together a lot.
Exactly twenty minutes later, a voice comes booming over the intercom again.
"ANNA, PLEASE TELL YOUR GUESTS IT'S TIME TO GO. THEY'RE WELCOME TO COME BACK ANYTIME."
Anna makes a noise like she has gum stuck in her throat. Remembering my manners, I thank her for having us and tell her I'll be back to see her soon.
"I'll be here," she says dismally. "I'm always here."
As we go down the stairs and yell good-bye to Mrs. Randall, a very furry gray cat passes through the living room in front of us and yowls at Cassie. It obviously remembers her.
"So that's the cat," I say.
She nods. That's the cat. And see? His hair grew back just fine." (pg 80)

What I really think:
When I first started reading I thought to myself, "Did she really write the whole book in present tense?" And yeah, she did, and I never noticed it again because it flows so naturally.

I love this book because every character is complex. In some ways Bree wants to stop talking to Joey to please her family, but she is sad when Joey leaves because she is her oldest and most loyal friend. Then there is Cassie. Even the reader can't understand her until the end. Does she like Bree or doesn't she? It turns out that Cassie is still struggling with her mother's death. At first she hangs out with Bree to stay out of trouble, but in spite of her sometimes vicious behavior, she really does like Bree and envies her relationship with her mother.

There are so many issues here a young reader could latch on to: getting along with siblings, making new friends, coping with loss.