Description
FOREST OF READING - Red Maple Suggested Reading List, 2026
Can best friends Aviva and Maddy survive the hardest year of their lives without each other?
Twelve-year-olds Maddy Li-Quinn and Aviva Adelman were born on the same street and have been inseparable ever since. The two are innately connected through their love of the arts: Aviva is passionate about poetry and writing, and Maddy is a gifted violinist. However, over the course of a painful year, very different family struggles drive the two girls apart. Maddy encounters violence in the home, and Aviva’s baby brother faces a difficult diagnosis.
To cope with the stress, Aviva's mother suggests she write a book about her friendship with Maddy. In an attempt to heal through the written word, Aviva becomes the funny, feisty protagonist of her own book. Reflecting back on the past year, Aviva realizes that she, too, has made many mistakes along the way.
Last Year With Maddy draws on the author's personal experience with loss and recovery.
"[B]ittersweet ... In the tender novel Last Year with Maddy, best friends grow apart and find their way home again." — Foreword Reviews
"This book has heart, and its emotions will touch the hearts of young readers. The author does a masterful job of blending Aviva's family and friend issues, and young readers will be shown the world of autism from a different perspective." — Mark Buxton, YA Book Central
Author Bio
ANNA ROSNER is a teacher and writer who holds a PhD in French literature. She is the award-winning author of two hockey biographies for young readers — Journeyman: The Story of NHL Right Winger Jamie Leach and My Left Skate: The Extraordinary Story of Eliezer Sherbatov. Anna is the director of Books with Wings, which provides new, quality picture books for Indigenous children living in isolated communities. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.
Review Quotes
"This book has heart, and its emotions will touch the hearts of young readers. The author does a masterful job of blending Aviva's family and friend issues, and young readers will be shown the world of autism from a different perspective." — Mark Buxton, YA Book Central
"[B]ittersweet ... At her mother's encouragement, Aviva writes down her account of the last year, alternating between the past and present. She recalls fond memories before snapping back to the reality of life without Maddy. The effect is haunting, adding intrigue about what really happened to Maddy ... The tone is somber, though Aviva's blunt assessments and witty retorts infuse humor into her heartache, as when she declares that a sixteenth-century poet simply "had no luck with boys." ... In the tender novel Last Year with Maddy, best friends grow apart and find their way home again." — Foreword Reviews
"Original, exceptional, and a fun read from start to finish… Last Year With Maddy draws upon author Anna Rosner's own personal experience with loss and recovery [which] gives the story an impressively exceptional storytelling quality…unreservedly recommended for middle school and community library Contemporary Fiction collections for young readers ages 9-12." — Midwest Book Review
"Middle-schoolers interested in reading about mental health struggles, difficulties in friendships, and life changes will be interested in this book." — Youth Services Book Review
"It's a story about Aviva and her relationship with herself and her world. It's a story about accepting others the way they are … but mostly, it's a story about accepting ourselves the way we are. Beautifully told with nuance and emotional depth that left me searching for tissue while I pondered 'the end'." — Gabriel Goldstone: sharing stories
"Last Year With Maddy is a raw, honest and heartfelt book about the power of friendship and forgiveness. Aviva's voice is pitch-perfect as she comes to terms with what happened in the last year between her and her best friend, Maddy. Both girls navigate difficult moments in their lives, and neither are perfect in how they try to support one another. But it's in their imperfections that the reader recognizes their humanity, and their love for each other. This book is full of heart and hope." — Sidura Ludwig, award-winning author of Swan: The Girl Who Grew
"Rosner has produced a layered and nuanced narrative in Last Year with Maddy with the musicality of an orchestral symphony. Readers will experience piercing high notes and resonant lows, not just from Aviva’s story but from each character as they perform in sometimes sad, angry, joyful, but always hopeful concert." — Paul Coccia, award-winning author of Recommended Reading
"At the heart of Last Year with Maddy are words—words of humour, of anger, of discovery, of connection. A complex and moving story about friendship and sisterly love."— Adam Sol, poet and author of How a Poem Moves: A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry
Biographical note
Anna Rosner, PhD, is the award-winning author of two hockey biographies for young readers published by Great Plains, as well as short fiction, scholarly articles and essays. Anna’s historical novel, Eyes on the Ice (Groundwood Books), is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and was short-listed for six awards, including the 2025 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. Anna's fourth book, Last Year with Maddy (Great Plains Press), was published in April of 2026.
Anna is the director of the Indigenous literary project, Books with Wings, which has provided 25,000 brand-new books and thousands of personal letters for children living on isolated reserves. She is also a 2026 recipient of the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal for this work.
