SOLVED. Middle school girl only friend moves away has trouble making friends [s]

[Kelsey]

I don't remember a lot about this book, just that I read it sometime around 2003 when I was in middle school and a little bit about the plot.

This girl has been best friends with this boy since they were kids, they might have both been left handed or had some kind of special physical attribute that connected them. I think they also had a secret club house or something. He moves away and she's left alone, she doesn't know how to make friends so she goes to her older sister for advice.

Her sister advises her to pick out a group and hang around until they notice her, then they'll ask her a question or something and she should answer in one word, then slowly integrate herself into the group.

The girl follows her sister's advice and finds a group, and sort of successfully makes friends. I think she may only have made like one friend but she didn't like the rest or they didn't like her or something?

I hope that's enough that somebody can help I've been looking for this book for years.

[Ann aka Iftcan]

Kelsey, I can think of several books that this could be, as this is a common theme in books aimed at that age group.

Do you remember anything about where they lived--small town, big town, city, megalopolis? What about what country it was in--U.S., Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, German, France or some other country.

[Kelsey]

I'm pretty sure that it was a small US town.

[Kelsey]

I remembered something else: the part where they had a physical connection was actually them "trading" hands

[Tab]

Box Top Dreams ?

A little more info: Publishers Weekly:
Living "in a simple red house... with an ordinary mom, an ordinary dad, and an ordinary sister," fifth-grader Ariadne Spire longs to discover something "sensational" about herself. With her best friend, Danny, she conducts her search via comic-book and gossip-magazine advertisements, mailing in for magic potions and telephoning psychics. But when Danny moves away, she feels lost and wishes she could navigate her way through the maze of growing up. Instead, there are obstacles in her path, like a nasty substitute teacher, Mrs. Zwort, and a manipulative classmate who seems to want Ari to join her tiny clique.

If not this book, what do you mean by "trading hands?"

[Kelsey]

YES! That's the book! Thank you so much!