Don't Fret, Frida

A heartfelt middle grade novel about friendship, family, and finding your way when life falls apart. Lots of twelve-year-olds have celebrity crushes. Frida Langford? She idolizes Margaret Mead, the famous anthropologist who studied what it means to be human. Frida wants to follow in her footsteps, observing, understanding, and discovering the world around her. But after her parents divorce, Frida's world shrinks. Uprooted from New York City to a small town in southern New Hampshire, she's the new kid at Pierce Middle School with no friends, no dad nearby, and a mom who's suddenly struggling more than she'll admit. So Frida does what any good anthropologist would do, she studies her classmates like a field experiment, even if the only thing interesting about them seems to be which team jersey they wear. Everything changes on a field trip to Mystery Hill, an ancient stone site where Frida meets Amanda and Zoe. Friendship starts to bloom but when her mom's drinking spirals and home life falls apart, Frida runs away to New York, desperate to feel safe again. Only when she's forced to return does Frida realize that understanding others starts with understanding herself and that bravery can mean staying, not escaping. Perfect for fans of Kate DiCamillo, Rebecca Stead, and Barbara Dee, Don't Fret, Frida is a moving coming-of-age story about resilience, empathy, and the courage to rebuild what's been broken.