A hint at the end leaves room for this series to evolve into high school; Amelia may be a bit long in the tooth, but devoted...
In this newest, 20th-anniversary offering of the Amelia’s Notebook series, Amelia graduates middle school and reminisces about all she has learned along the way.
Amelia isn’t allowed to get a real yearbook, so she decides to make her own—a combination notebook/yearbook, of course. Instead of class photos and clubs, Amelia includes what is important to her: friends and life lessons. Much of the notebook is retrospective; fans of the series will enjoy the romp down Memory Lane, but there are a few new challenges that Amelia faces as well. Her best friend, Carly, will be switching schools after graduation, so Amelia will have to enter high school without her. Plus, her dad suggests studying for her bat mitzvah over the summer; Amelia wasn’t raised Jewish, and this new leap into religion is overwhelming. A touch melodramatic (it wouldn’t be a journal without angst), Amelia’s tone remains chatty and breezy as always. In a nod to the very first notebook, published 20 years ago, Amelia is making the same face on the cover, just with a graduation cap perched atop her head. A lot has changed for Amelia, but perhaps not much at all, as well….
A hint at the end leaves room for this series to evolve into high school; Amelia may be a bit long in the tooth, but devoted fans will follow. (Graphic fiction. 8-12)Pub Date: April 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-939547-09-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Creston
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often...
A successful juvenile by the beloved New Yorker writer portrays a farm episode with an imaginative twist that makes a poignant, humorous story of a pig, a spider and a little girl.
Young Fern Arable pleads for the life of runt piglet Wilbur and gets her father to sell him to a neighbor, Mr. Zuckerman. Daily, Fern visits the Zuckermans to sit and muse with Wilbur and with the clever pen spider Charlotte, who befriends him when he is lonely and downcast. At the news of Wilbur's forthcoming slaughter, campaigning Charlotte, to the astonishment of people for miles around, spins words in her web. "Some Pig" comes first. Then "Terrific"—then "Radiant". The last word, when Wilbur is about to win a show prize and Charlotte is about to die from building her egg sac, is "Humble". And as the wonderful Charlotte does die, the sadness is tempered by the promise of more spiders next spring.
The three way chats, in which they are joined by other animals, about web spinning, themselves, other humans—are as often informative as amusing, and the whole tenor of appealing wit and pathos will make fine entertainment for reading aloud, too.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 1952
ISBN: 978-0-06-026385-0
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1952
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
A real gem.
A 10-year old girl learns to adjust to a strange town, makes some fascinating friends, and fills the empty space in her heart thanks to a big old stray dog in this lyrical, moving, and enchanting book by a fresh new voice.
India Opal’s mama left when she was only three, and her father, “the preacher,” is absorbed in his own loss and in the work of his new ministry at the Open-Arms Baptist Church of Naomi [Florida]. Enter Winn-Dixie, a dog who “looked like a big piece of old brown carpet that had been left out in the rain.” But, this dog had a grin “so big that it made him sneeze.” And, as Opal says, “It’s hard not to immediately fall in love with a dog who has a good sense of humor.” Because of Winn-Dixie, Opal meets Miss Franny Block, an elderly lady whose papa built her a library of her own when she was just a little girl and she’s been the librarian ever since. Then, there’s nearly blind Gloria Dump, who hangs the empty bottle wreckage of her past from the mistake tree in her back yard. And, Otis, oh yes, Otis, whose music charms the gerbils, rabbits, snakes and lizards he’s let out of their cages in the pet store. Brush strokes of magical realism elevate this beyond a simple story of friendship to a well-crafted tale of community and fellowship, of sweetness, sorrow and hope. And, it’s funny, too.
A real gem. (Fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7636-0776-2
Page Count: 182
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
SEEN & HEARD
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