Tackles some difficult topics for a young teen and there were some great moments. It got a little preachy/ psychoanalytic at times. Not bad. ( )

this was a nice little story about middle school girls and their feelings. In one scene Amalee is feeling unwanted and overwhelmed with all the demands of middle school. and she says something about wanting to go back to grade school and see all the kindergarten drawings hanging in the hall. Life was simpler then. The feelings of anger and meanness are new to her and she isn't sure where they came from. ( )

I have had this one for a while waiting for Kassie to get in a place to read it. The main character is an 11 year-old girl, but there are no animals. She seems to be enjoying it. There are some interesting perspectives and the girl's father is very sick as the main plot complication and we have a little of that to deal with, so the the lens of fiction is a good conversation starter. ( )

Williams is better known as a singer/songwriter than as an author, but she's begun very well. Amalee is an engaging 11-year-old girl who is trying to find herself among a crowd of sixth-graders, not to mention her dad's family-like web of dear friends. And then her dad gets sick, and the book really takes wing. ( )

http://michael.cartwheelmedia.com/wpm/2006/06/21/2138/ ( )