A Frog in My Throat

By Frieda Wishinsky and Louise-Andrée Laliberté

Kate and Jake have always been best friends; always, that is, until Jake's cousin, Lionel, moves nearby.

Jake starts spending time with Lionel instead of Kate. Kate struggles with his abandonment and her own loneliness as she seeks new friends that share her likes and dislikes. And, perhaps there is a place in her life for her old best friend after all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2008
• ISBN: 9781554695638

Frieda Wishinsky

FRIEDA WISHINSKY is the award-winning author of more than eighty books — including picture books, novels and nonfiction — which have been translated into many languages. Each One Special, illustrated by Werner Zimmerman, was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award, and Please, Louise! illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay, won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award. More recently, Frieda has written the novel A Flower is a Friend, illustrated by Karen Patkau, and How to Become an Accidental Entrepreneur with Elizabeth MacLeod. Frieda grew up in Manhattan and has always loved crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. She now lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Book preview

Chapter One

Dumb Movie

"Want to see Revenge of the Ghost tomorrow?" Kate asked her best friend Jake.

Sure, said Jake.

Kate and Jake loved Revenge of the Ghost. They’d seen it three times already, but they still loved watching it.

They loved to scream when the ghost appeared in the captain’s room.

They loved to screech, I’m back, when the ghost screeched, I’m back.

They loved to howl when the ghost took off his head and carried it down the hall like a hat.

See you tomorrow at two, said Kate.

I’ll bring potato chips, said Jake. Jake always brought potato chips.

The next day, Kate filled a bowl with popcorn and a plate with chocolate chip cookies. She’d helped her mom bake the cookies that morning. The house still smelled of chocolate. It was the best smell in the world.

At two fifteen, Kate looked out the window. She didn’t see Jake, but she wasn’t worried.

Jake was always late.

Last week his excuse was that he didn’t have any clean underwear. The week before he said the zipper on his pants broke. Kate smiled. What crazy excuse would he have