Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Only the Lonely
    Only the Lonely
    Only the Lonely
    Ebook181 pages2 hours

    Only the Lonely

    By Laura Dower

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Summer ends too fast when you’re dreading junior high
    Twelve-year-old Madison Finn is allergic to change. Her two best friends are away at camp and Madison is not sure she’s going to survive the summer, let alone the beginning of junior high. Good thing she has a new laptop, which she uses to write and store all of her thoughts on friendship, her parents’ divorce, and her fear of being called a loser for not liking sushi!

    At first, change seems like the worst thing ever, but with the support of her family, friends, and little pug, Phin, Madison realizes she can handle anything that comes her way.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateSep 24, 2013
    ISBN9781480422520
    Only the Lonely
    Author

    Laura Dower

    Author Laura Dower has a lot in common with Madison Finn: They’re both only children and they both love dogs, the color orange, and books! Laura has written more than ninety kids’ books to date, including twenty-five in the series From the Files of Madison Finn. Her other books include the new Palace Puppies series and For Girls Only, a guide to girl stuff. When she’s not writing, Laura loves to garden, sing (loudly), and volunteer as a scout leader for her daughter and two sons. She and her family live in New York. Want to be keypals? Drop her a note at www.lauradower.com.  

    Read more from Laura Dower

    Related to Only the Lonely

    Titles in the series (31)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Children's Family For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Extra EMBARRASSING

      Apr 11, 2021

      Once, I was out on a farm and these goats came up behind me and started eating my pants. It was so embarrassing, I thought they were going to chew them off! Worst of all, my crush was there with me! OMTG! Frankie It was school picture day and I aske

      3 min read

    • Article

      Totally EMBARRASSING

      Feb 13, 2022

      Totally EMBARRASSING
      2 min read

    • Article

      Totally EMBARRASSING

      Jun 24, 2020

      My grandparents were visiting my family’s house, and I needed to go to the toilet. I noticed the door was closed but I didn’t think anything of it. I opened it, turned towards the toilet and my nan was there! I said, “Uhhh…” and quickly stepped out,

      2 min read

    • Article

      Totally EMBARRASSING

      Feb 14, 2021

      We were setting up for my birthday party and my mum tied a banner to the fairy floss machine. When I was bringing the party food in, I tripped and fell over - bringing the fairy floss machine and the banners down with me! This also brought down the m

      2 min read

    • Article

      CELEBRITY Gossip

      Sep 2, 2021

      These days singer Shawn Mendes gets recognised pretty much everywhere he goes, but once upon a time he was just a new kid in the biz and being recognised in public was something he had to get used to. Here Shawn talks about the first time he remember

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sweet Sabrina

      Jun 1, 2022

      Sweet Sabrina
      2 min read

    • Article

      Whoa! How Embarrassing!

      Aug 5, 2021

      My family is good friends with another family that lives on our street and one day we all went to a carnival together . We were having lots of fun until our neighbour’s son dared me to go on the roller coaster with him three times in a row. I normall

      2 min read

    • Article

      Totally Entertaining

      Nov 14, 2021

      Totally Entertaining
      1 min read

    • Article

      CELEBRITY gossip CHRISTMAS EDITION

      Dec 2, 2021

      Taylor Swift has received many special Christmas presents over the years but there’s one particular gift that was a little bit extra special. “I remember the present I got that really excited me was a guitar that I got when I was eight. I didn’t end

      2 min read

    • Article

      Totally EMBARRASSING

      Sep 13, 2020

      Totally EMBARRASSING
      2 min read

    • Article

      SWIFTIE Forever! TAYLOR

      Jan 6, 2022

      SWIFTIE Forever! TAYLOR
      2 min read

    • Article

      Totally EMBARRASSING

      Jul 12, 2020

      I was playing a game with my older sister and I lost, so she got to dress me in any outfit of her choice that I had to wear on our daily walk. She made me wear my dressing gown, a floppy leopard print sun hat, and tiny pink sunglasses. I also had to

      2 min read

    • Article

      Just like MAGIC

      Nov 14, 2021

      Just like MAGIC
      2 min read

    • Article

      Charmed–by–Charli

      Nov 2, 2022

      After storming the TikTok world and basically becoming famous overnight, people suddenly wanted to know a whole lot more about Charli, her sister Dixie and their parents Heidi and Marc. In 2021, the first season of The D’Amelio Show aired and season

      2 min read

    • Article

      We Love Olivia

      Jun 3, 2021

      Olivia turned 18 last month, so most of her debut album was written when she was 17 years old. “It’s a really strange age where you’re figuring out so many things: how you want to be treated, love and heartbreak, how you fit into the world and how yo

      2 min read

    • Article

      FASHION Queen

      Jun 3, 2021

      She likes her pancakes with butter only, no maple syrup! Zendaya hates chipped nail polish! The star says that if your polish chips, then it’s time to take it off. Her favourite flower and smell of all time is the gardenia. She is very superstitious.

      1 min read

    • Article

      Whoa! How Embarrassing!

      Jun 3, 2021

      One night my family and I went to a local restaurant for dinner. My little brother needed to go to the toilet so my dad took him. While they were gone all our food arrived and mum spilt sauce on her top so she went to clean it off leaving me alone at

      3 min read

    • Article

      Whoa! How Embarrassing!

      Oct 3, 2019

      Whoa! How Embarrassing!
      3 min read

    • Article

      How My I Pet Met

      Dec 24, 2019

      How My I Pet Met
      2 min read

    • Article

      Part 2 SOCKS

      Apr 1, 2022

      Part 2 SOCKS
      7 min read

    • Article

      Contest And Letters

      Mar 1, 2022

      Amazon Rainforest Elephant Aardvark Kangaroo John Robert C., age 9, Maryland Giant Gull that Feasts on People Mildred N., age 10, Washington Levitation Beau R., age 7, California Avery S., age 7 Liam Y., age 9, Virginia Mushroom Forest

      1 min read

    • Article

      Black Water Sister

      Aug 2, 2021

      The drawing must have been bundled up with other, less interesting papers, or Jess wouldn’t have thrown it away. Mom had kept every piece of art Jess had ever made, her childhood scrawls treated with as much reverence as the pieces from her first – a

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Neighborhood Hangout

      Aug 3, 2021

      The Neighborhood Hangout
      3 min read

    • Article

      I Wanted To Make Millions!

      Oct 3, 2019

      I Wanted To Make Millions!
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Great Mantis Rescue

      Sep 1, 2019

      The Great Mantis Rescue
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Only the Lonely

    4.5/5

    2 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      This was a cute book! Anyone starting middle school can relate to it.
    • 1/5
      I didn't like this book for a few reasons:

      Madison trolls for friends in an internet chat room? I think that is the wrong message to send. She starts emailing with someone called bigwheels, who is supposed to be a 13 or 14 year old girl? my immediate thought was: 50 year old perv alert.

      Madison is not very likable. Her friends go away to camp over the summer and she is all bitter about it. Then she makes friends with a new girl in town, they get along great and hang out, but as soon as school starts, she is very mean to Fiona and ignores her.
      Her old friends come back, but she is so self absorbed that she doesn't behave like a friend to them.

      I think this book sends the wrong message to young readers in every way.

    Book preview

    Only the Lonely - Laura Dower

    Only the Lonely

    From the Files of Madison Finn, Book 1

    Laura Dower

    For Mom with love—always remember MTM, sour cream & onion chips, and Warren Avenue

    Special thanks to my first editor, Helen Perelman, who showed me the ropes;

    and to my new editor, Samantha Streger,

    who’s helping me bring Maddie back to life …

    Contents

    Chapter 1

    Chapter 2

    Chapter 3

    Chapter 4

    Chapter 5

    Chapter 6

    Chapter 7

    Chapter 8

    Chapter 9

    Chapter 10

    Chapter 11

    Chapter 12

    Chapter 13

    Chapter 14

    Preview: Boy, Oh Boy!

    About the Author

    Chapter 1

    "HNNNNNNUGH! WHAT IS YOUR problem?" Madison grunted at her new orange laptop computer. She was smack-dab in the middle of downloading a picture of a super-cute Ursus maritimus (a.k.a. polar bear) when the screen just froze.

    She knew her hard drive had plenty of memory and her virus program was up to date.

    She punched all the right keys.

    CAPS LOCK wasn’t on.

    But nothing.

    Sometimes in the past, Madison’s computer screen would freeze, but only for a blip. This time, something was different. Maybe the computer wasn’t really the one with a problem.

    Maybe Madison was the frozen one.

    Madison Francesca Finn had a dreadful case of late-summer brain freeze. It was not the kind of brain freeze you get when you drink a Grape Slurpee too fast. This was the kind of brain freeze that happens when your thoughts get stuck in a whirly swirl of loneliness, friendlessness, and total and utter boredom. This was the chronic, moronic, pain-in-the-brain freeze that happens when everyone you know is at camp but you’re stuck at home with Mom; the summer reading list you were supposed to be finishing up hasn’t even been unfolded; and you have no pool options on 95° days.

    Ugh! Madison yelped, jumping up from her desk chair. Laptop fail, Phin! Why me? She glared at her dog, Phineas T. Finn, who was curled up next to a giant metal file cabinet in the corner of her bedroom.

    Phin poked up his wrinkly nose into the air and sneezed. Rowroooooooo! This pug hated it when his nap was interrupted.

    Well, I’ll just restart it just to be sure everything’s okay, Madison said out loud, groaning and hitting a few special keys. Pressing Control+Alt+Delete at once was a trick her dad had taught her.

    Dad was the one who had computerized Madison in the first place. He had shown her what HTML meant before most of her classmates had clicked on their first mouses. And Dad always shared the best apps, games, and cool tools—all of them educational, of course. He loved computer jokes, too, even though he told the same ones more than once.

    Hey, Maddie, why did the Net chick cross the road? he would ask.

    I dunno, Dad … why? Madison would say with pretend interest, even if it was the third time she’d heard it.

    To get ONLINE! Dad would laugh.

    And that was one of his better jokes.

    Just this year, her parents had bought this new laptop in Madison’s favorite color. Dad uploaded all the latest desktop-publishing programs, too. He even got Madison an ice-cream cone–shaped flash drive so she could backup her documents and photographs.

    It’s a great way to organize your thoughts, honey bear, Mom had suggested as they unpacked the computer back in May. Just think, you’re on the cutting edge of technology. This fall, you’ll be the smartest seventh grader at Far Hills.

    It made Madison uncomfortable whenever Mom talked about how smart Madison was, like she was a computer genius or a writing genius or anyone with genius potential. Madison knew her way around the Internet, but she didn’t exactly feel like a genius—yet.

    The laptop beeped and zinged, and Madison’s desktop wallpaper appeared once again. The polar bear was right there in its own box with a collage of white rhinos and mountain gorillas in the background.

    Madison always used pictures of endangered animals as her screen savers. In fact, she considered herself an official animal advocate both on the computer and off. She fantasized about working for the National Geographic Explorer TV show, or becoming a super vet, or maybe even becoming a documentary filmmaker like her mom.

    With the laptop finally unfrozen and ready to go, Madison logged onto her favorite web site, TweenBlurt.com. Here she could read about the latest and greatest trends; scan true stories shared by a whole bunch of girls she didn’t know; and chat with kids who liked the same things she did.

    Best of all, the chat room helped Madison break through a case of brain freeze better than most things. Of course, she knew meeting new people online wasn’t the same as having actual, in-the-same-room friends whose hair you could braid or who could play hoops, but it was better than being alone all the time.

    She’d logged onto TweenBlurt for the first time a year ago with Mom’s permission. The administrators in charge of the site were super-sticklers for safety.

    The homepage was designed like a giant fishbowl. Everyone chose a fish as his or her avatar. Madison’s was a rainbow fish and her chat room screen name was MadFinn, which was pretty funny, considering she was a Finn among the fishes, so to speak. Once she clicked, her rainbow fish swam into a waiting room.

    Madison scanned the list of different chat rooms she could join.

    I am sooo bored! Hello!

    (32 fish)

    Tell me anything u want GRRRLS ONLY

    (12 fish)

    ****animal lovers here*****

    (3 fish)

    Private! Wanna be keypals?

    (28 fish)

    Pictures of cute boyz can u help me

    (11 fish)

    only the lonely

    (1 fish)

    Madison clicked animal lovers here and went inside. She was sure she must be in the right place. Maybe she’d meet a fellow polar bear admirer?

    : That is kool beans

    MadFinn has entered the room.

    : Hiya!!!!!!

    : Madfinn stats?

    : Hell

    : ooooo Helloooooo

    : How r u? I love cats.

    : stats f/12/NY u?

    : f/14/DE

    : hey cats I love animals too.

    : I LOVE CATS!!!

    : :>) I loooove Jimmie J!!!!

    : Do you have cats?

    : GMTA I like Downtown Boyz 2!

    Downtown Boyz was an all-guy singing group whose lead singer Jimmie J was pretty cute but … wait a minute! Madison wanted to talk about animals. This was the animal lovers here room. Why were they changing the subject? Who cared about Jimmie J? And why wasn’t Iluvcats girl responding?

    : (( )) :* they r sooooooo hot

    : IMO Jimmie is the hottest :-@

    Iluvcats has left the room.

    As soon as cat girl left the room, Madison left, too.

    She went back to the room list in search of someone who would talk about animals or computers or something besides Jimmie J. She saw one other room that looked semi-interesting.

    only the lonely (1 fish)

    That was exactly how Madison felt. She missed her best friend, Aimee, who was away at ballet camp twirling around; and Egg, who was away at computer camp URL-ing around.

    She clicked on lonely and hoped for the best.

    Of course as luck would have it (and Madison’s luck usually ran a little sloooooow these days), she entered and introduced herself with a quick MadFinn hello, but then nothing happened.

    There was no hello back.

    There was no how r u?

    There was nothing. Madison waited almost three whole minutes before the (1 fish) responded in any way at all.

    : ohhhh whoa i thought I was alone. My

    : screen froze the computer is

    : hellllooo????

    : wicked slow sorry

    : u r not alone! i saw how r u?

    : ok. How are

    : how old r u?

    : 12 and yoo?

    : 12

    : my birthday was last wk

    : (:o!!!! no way! happy birthday!

    : thank you where do u live?

    : NY are you at camp?

    : no. I’m at home washington state

    : omigod you are all the way across the

    : country that is so cool WOW

    : yeah but I’m lonely here u know???

    : me too

    : and bored too

    : wanna be keypals?

    : ok what’ s that?

    : like penpals only email like

    : o ok. What is your email?

    : send me your em

    : tell me your email and I will write 2 u

    Madison waited.

    : tell me your email and I will write u!!!

    Madison waited a little longer.

    : r u there?

    : Hellllllooooo?????

    : *poof*

    Poof?

    Madison felt even more alone than when she had logged on, so of course she logged off immediately. She wasn’t in the mood to be lonely anymore.

    After that chat room fiasco, Madison went into her super-special computer files. She accessed the files with a super-special password which was so super-special that even she forgot it sometimes. Luckily, she had it taped inside the top drawer of her desk.

    In the last few weeks (partly out of boredom and partly out of a desire to get her life together), Madison had begun a new system of personal information storage on the laptop.

    She had been collecting magazine clippings like a pack rat for months and uploading them onto her computer. Mom had a cool app on her smartphone that could transfer photos and letters to Madison’s laptop.

    One by one the images popped up in boxes on the screen, one on top of the other. Now Madison needed to add the special effects. She logged onto funkyfotostudio.com and downloaded the images into a rainbow folder there marked Madison. Once the pics were downloaded she was able to add borders, color, funny captions, and more. She hoped Mom and Dad would let her have her own Web page or even her own Web site one day. Maybe the genius she was destined to be really was a Web site genius?

    Mom would love that.

    In addition to the photos, Madison decided she would also keep an online record of her most important feelings, fears, and thoughts. Of course, most people would have called this a journal, but Madison thought that sounded way too obvious. Instead she just called it: The Files of Madison Finn.

    Madison had friend files. She had homework files. She had nothing-in-particular files. She classified, collected, controlled, and computed everything. Here, inside this delightful orange computer, Madison was in the process of creating password-protected miles of files. And she backed them all up on her ice-cream flash drive.

    She opened a recent one.

    Scary Dinners

    That made her laugh. On the screen before her was a graph on which Madison had plotted Mom’s predictable fast-food dinners. After sixteen straight nights in a row of egg rolls, tacos, fried chicken, and other scary dinners, Madison was inspired to keep track. As of tonight, the graph showed pizza running neck and neck with Chinese food, with PB-&-J sandwiches lagging behind.

    Tonight, Madison decided to open a brand new file in honor of her hour on TweenBlurt.com.

    Only the Lonely

    Madison closed her eyes for a second. What to write? Sometimes going online was great: all the people, all the chatter, all

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1