In Amelia Rules! Volume #1 The Whole World’s Crazy by Jimmy Gownley, Amelia really does rule in her humor, humanity, and nine-year-old child (and occasionally adult-like) sensibilities. In Amelia’s crazy world, life is not all fluff and sunshine. She’s the child of recently divorced parents, she’s living in a new town in a one Tanner-tantrum away from homelessness home (i.e., her Aunt Tanner’s house), and she’s recently been branded into the nerd group at school. Fortunately, Amelia has tremendous reserves of wit and wisdom that she showcases in each episode—episodes that are part funny, part sad, part cynical, part hopeful, part inspirational, and completely down-to-earth kid friendly.

Amelia, Reggie, Rhonda and Pajamaman, the G.A.S.P. (Gathering of Awesome Super Pals) group, display unique personalities; they are each depicted with humor and warts and all. Amelia, well, she rules! Reggie’s fixation on superheroes leads to many a memorable moment—his number one career choice was pharmacist, but since that seemed so unattainable, he chose superhero as a new gameplan. Rhonda looooooooves Reggie, and this leads to a bit of love-to-hate animosity between herself and Amelia. Pajamaman (consistently depicted in the same sleepwear) is a quiet presence, but he manages to add humor and depth to Amelia’s story.

For instance, in one episode, Amelia discovers Pajamaman is a latchkey kid (latchkey being a term defined multiple ways by the kids) who receives no presents from Santa. She resolves to become Pajamaman’s Santa by giving away her own Red Captain Ninja. Amelia Rules! may be laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s not without its share of depth, touching on issues such as poverty, bullying, divorce, parenting, truth, loneliness, and, well, overall world craziness or sanity.

For child readers, Gownley replicates everyday childhood life through familiar issues, locales, and events–his episodes include familiar childhood realities such as outwitting the school bullies, cheating in freeze tag, passing notes in class, making Christmas lists and debating the existence of Santa Claus, (repeatedly) visiting the principal’s office, not to mention the plethora of jokes about gross bodily functions (and you may find yourself wary of Taco Bell ever after). For adult readers, Gownley inserts small touches such as Amelia’s interrogation of Santa at the Consumaway Shopping Center, her father’s employment in the licensing department for Softee Chicken, and her school attendance at Joe McCarthy Elementary “Weeding out the wrong element since 1952”.

Gownley’s glossy illustrations are displayed within the comic book medium’s basic three-by-three framework. While Gownley uses the basic nine-panel layout 9-panel layout, he also frequently enlivens this basic framework by employing flexibility—by adding or deleting borders, combining or adding panels, and alternating full-color and white-space backgrounds. At sundry points, Amelia speaks directly to readers; Amelia’s direct address is easily identified because Gownley consistently delineates these pages by depicting Amelia by herself against a white backdrop. Such direct address augments readers’ identification with Amelia and understanding of her thought processes.

Amelia does pronounce, “I rule” in one episode but also she manifests self-doubt and feelings of guilt over her parent’s divorce. Even as she confidently proclaims her normalcy in the face of the whole world around her being crazy, readers are made privy to her niggling doubt about whether the situation might actually be the other way around—the world normal and only she crazy (to which she eventually concludes, “suddenly my head hurts”). Fortunately, in the face of such doubts and insecurities, Amelia’s Aunt Tanner is always there to sit her down for some straight talk as when she declares, “You know Amelia…Just because your home is broken…that doesn’t mean you have to be.”

Amelia’s diverse support group—her G.A.S.P. pals and her Aunt Tanner—help her to make sense of (or at least to enjoy living in) this crazy world. Amelia Rules! readers will be able to take heart from watching Amelia boldly face the world around her and be better equipped to face this crazy, wonderful world for themselves.

Just a taste of Amelia’s wisecracky wisdom:

* My parents are crazy, my friends are crazy, everybody is crazy but me. I’m normal…Suddenly, my head hurts.
* I hate school! Why can’t we have the apocalypse instead.
* I tell you Tanner…It’s not easy raising a parent these days…You gotta be sharp! Aware of every little thing.
* Life is like a New York Egg Cream! It has the chocolaty Goodness of U-Bet syrup…the wholesome fortification of 2% milk, the…uh…the bubbles of…um…seltzer water…and…uh…okay, I was stretching. Life is nothing like an egg cream.

For all this and more from Amelia, don’t miss Volume 1. I’m also looking forward to diving into Amelia Rules! Volume 2: What Makes You Happy and Amelia Rules! Volume 3: Superheroes. ( )

This is the first in the Amelia Rules series and I really enjoyed it. The stories are fun and silly and they cover some real issues that kids have (divorce, moving, problems with friends, poverty).

I thought that it was a fun book. The main character goes through a lot of normal things for kids this age, they can relate to it. It was funny, yet heartfelt. - spring 08 (Amber)

Amber Brown meets Charlie Brown!! Great story of a young girl in a recently divorced family moving to a new town and starting over. Very funny and sad all at once.
ALL AGES ( )

A Peanuts-like chronicle of Amelia, her friends, and what they do during school and the summer (there are several sequels).