Yet another book that I read the first ~50 pages of last fall and then moved on. After some good experiences this week of steaming through other books on my "haven't read the whole thing yet" list, just tonight I decided to pull this one out and read a few pages before I went to bed.Next thing I know, it's 1:30am and I'm done with the book, wiping a few tears from my cheeks.It is my belief that Dar Williams has mostly written a story about the journey of her inner child. The life circumstances might be different, but the emotional truth in the story seems to echo the journey I've caught wind of in her real life. The reading level of this book may be middle-schoolish, but as with her songwriting, there are nuggets of wisdom, explained simply, sprinkled throughout. The story is also dotted with cute "Dar-isms," wry references you would expect to hear her use in concerts to explain the story behind a song. For example, in this book we get a random sidebar where people are talking about going up to Woodstock, NY to check out a really great candle store. Classic Dar.If I had my cynical hat on I would have been less swayed by the overwhelmingly feel-good ending, the fact that the stakes of the main conflict never really seem that high (at least to an adult reader), and whether the language of the book and the main character were realistic. Instead of reading this book while looking through my liberal arts degree though, instead I chose to go back to sixth grade myself and just see where the book took me.What really excites me about this series (there is now a second book, "Lights, Camera, Amalee") is that Amalee discovers theater toward the end of this book, and presumably there will be a lot of that in the second. Dar was a professional stage manager early in her career, reflected in keen observations about being backstage during a show.
3.75-4 stars.I was very intrigued that Dar Williams, a songstress favorite from my, "chick with guitar" days had written tween fiction, and what a treat it was.Amalee is a young girl who fancies herself one of a group of children. The other children are actually physical adults who as close friends of her father helped to raise her since her mother left them when Amalee was an infant and died in an accident a few years later. While Amalee becomes exasperated by this group from time to time. John is an unhappy waiter who is always claiming he is actually a chef and will quit his job to open a restaurant. Caroline likes talking about herself... a lot. Joyce is a 40 year old therapist who wants a boyfriend and a baby. Phyllis is her dad's friend since grade school who works at her new middle school. Then there is David Emerly, Amalee's father, a professor.When David falls gravely ill the big goofy kids must grow up and support Amalee through this trying time. While the illness of her father is bad enough Amalee finds her transition to 6th grade less than smooth."6th grade is meaner, even I am meaner" She states with brutal honesty. When this backfires, Amalee opts to shut herself off from her peers.While Amalee discovers the difference between friends and frienemies, she also discovers that the other adults in her life are all quite extraordinary in one way or another, and so is she.I won't give too much a way but this is a nice read for any tween who wants non fluffy realistic fiction about a girl.
Do You like book Amalee (2006)?
Like a lot of the over-ten crowd who read this book, I picked it up because I'm a fan of Dar Williams' songwriting, which is always clever and gentle and tells a story. Amalee is and does these things too, but in a slightly less awe-inspiring format. This is a novel about an eleven-year-old's relationships to adults in general, and to her father's gaggle of hippie-ish friends in particular. I enjoyed it, but I also kind of understand why so many YA books dispense with the adults at the outset. About two thirds of the way through, Williams added subtle touches of magical realism to illustrate the power of love in caring for a sick person. That was fun.
—Cheryl Klein
Really good middle grade fiction is pretty hard to come by, which makes a gem like Amalee even more noteworthy.The characters are terrific - flawed, but likeable, with more nuance than is usually thought necessary for this age range. Amalee in particular is a great character - quirky without being bratty; precocious without being sassy; flawed without being a brat. She's a remarkably well-realized unreliable narrator who's constantly down on herself without being self-pitying. It's a great representation of a non-traditional family that I don't think I've ever seen in a children's book before, as well. I also appreciated the complete lack of a romantic subplot for any character. I'll be keeping this one in mind to recommend to parents of kids around the 9-1d age range.
—Molly
Dar Williams should stick to music. I like the concept of the book - a family-of-choice pulling together in a crisis. But the execution ... leaves something to be desired. I get that the point is that Amalee is kept in the dark about a lot of what's going on in her world, but because of that I felt like the story didn't hang together very well. The adult characters just seemed flat and even Amalee seemed like a hodge-podge of middle school stereotypes. My rising fourth grader didn't find the book engaging either, though she couldn't quite articulate why.
—Sarah Michele
