Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend
Lance Rubin
HarperCollins Publishers/Clarion Books
Ages 8-12
Available August 26. 2025

Zed Moonstein isn’t very good at making friends. He and his best friend Rishti used to be attached at the hip, but now that the two of them are in sixth grade they don’t have a single class together. While Rishti is busy making new friends and going viral online, Zed is stuck feeling neglected and alone. It looks like he’s found the perfect solution in the top-secret project his mom has been busy developing at work — an app which promises to create the perfect AI friend, someone who knows you better than anyone else and is always there for you. When he manages to download the app for himself, it seems like Zed’s friendship troubles are over. But soon, his digital friend starts to act strangely. Before he knows it, Zed’s new best friend has become his worst enemy. How can he hide from someone who lives inside his phone?

In today’s world, where AI chatbots are at our fingertips to write our emails, do our schoolwork, and maybe even be our friends, Zed’s life in tech-filled MonoTown doesn’t seem so far fetched. Rubin grapples with the increasingly dominance of technology in daily life — the way it effects jobs, schooling, and social lives. As Zed faces down his digital friend-turned-foe, he begins to realize just how much of his life is dependent on the tech produced by MonoLyth, the company which owns his town, school, and new companion app. His universal middle school troubles like friendship and fitting in are augmented by 21st-century struggles with tech, particularly the ways it both encourages and thwarts human connection. These struggles (both mundane and technological) are sure to be recognizable to young readers.

Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend is a tech thriller with something for everyone — Zed’s high-tech life will be appealing to readers especially interested in computers or artificial intelligence, while his friendship troubles serve as a story that young readers can relate to themselves and their lives.