The New Friend Fix

Jennifer Torres's The New Friend Fix is a gentle little mystery for 7 year olds about a girl who can turn into a cat, and a new classmate who won't say a word.

What happens

It's the second book about Catalina Castañeda, and it's the first day of third grade. Catalina has spent two hours packing her backpack. She's up early so she can be the very first person to meet the new girl.

She doesn't manage it. Esme arrives with her cousin Jazmín, who whisks her straight past. Then, in front of the whole class, Jazmín tells Catalina and her friend Pablo not to pick on her cousin. Catalina is SO cross. She never picks on anyone!

Esme doesn't talk to anybody. Every time Catalina or Pablo tries to help, Jazmín is there first. Then Jazmín hands out party invitations to the whole class and walks right past their table.

Pablo loves telenovelas (very dramatic TV shows) and he's sure this is just like one of them. Maybe Jazmín is keeping Esme locked away from new friends on purpose?

Now for the magic part. Catalina's great-aunt gave her an old sewing kit that makes magical disguises. When she zips up her kitten-eared hoodie, she really does turn into a cat. So she sneaks up to Jazmín's porch as a scruffy grey stray to find out what's going on. What does she spot? Esme, drawing the same house with a red roof over and over again.

Catalina narrates, and she's a proper perfectionist. She notices the crooked letter on the school sign. She double-knots her laces. She's secretly very pleased when her new teacher seats everyone in alphabetical order. Kids who like things just so will feel very understood!

It's a sweet book about not judging people too fast. Catalina's great-aunt has a saying for it, which in English goes "Faces we can see, but hearts we do not know". There are lots of Spanish words along the way too, and most of them are explained as you go.

What to read next

Catalina Incognito is the one to read next if they missed it. That's where she first opens the sewing kit, on her eighth birthday.