In this series of articles, I will give brief reviews of various children's books my son picked out at the library. Yes, I actually read them; well, except for the ones that get on my nerves due to lack of real value. All of the books, at the point, are graphic novels (comics), but they comprise a range of types, from little kids’ books to fables, to folklore, to educational, to biographical, and more, covering many genres (although he's not ready for horror, yet).
I hope you'll find these reviews helpful in choosing books for your children. Remember, read a story each night when your child is young to foster a love of reading. Don’t let them watch TV or play video games in their bedroom as too much screen time (more than about 1-2 hours a day) has been scientifically proven to be bad for the brain development of any person who is not finished growing (i.e. around the age of 25 – think wisdom teeth).
Amelia Rules! (series)
The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff (book 7) by Jimmy Gownley
My son's score: 10🌠
My score: 10🌠
What's taught: life as a tween; dealing with adversity; kindness; friendship; doing the right thing; loyalty
Synopsis: Cartoonish art with a full color palette and frequent use of backgrounds. In the sometimes irreverent Amelia Rules! series, we see Amelia and her friends as they struggle through grade and middle school, mostly on the fringes, with the emotional outbursts and instability, the backstabbing and all of the other horrible (and good) things you go through at that time in your life, although it seems to me that what is depicted is more in line with middle school. Although some critics have favorably compared it to Peanuts, I see this as very different from Peanuts (although Jimmy does parody it a bit). I think it is more mature and appeals to a broader fan base, providing layers that will attract older people than would typically enjoy Charlie Brown and Snoopy. There’s a fair amount of arguing, fighting, disagreeing and other immaturity typical of grade and middle school. These books are listed in order of release, but there is a discontinuity in their story chronology. Parents may struggle with the use of certain words, like “bimbo” and “floozy” but, truthfully, I remember learning words like “trollop” and “doxy” at that age!
The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff (book 7) is probably a tie with Superheroes, really. It deals with having a parent in the military and how scary that can be. It starts with a flashback to when Amelia joined GASP (complete with simulated aged paper) and the oath to always stick together. Tanner's being interviewed on the radio while Amelia goes to join GASP in rebuilding their fort. After some argument, Reggie's put in charge and quickly becomes the model of a horrible supervisor, which leads to a glorious mudball fight between them (PajamaMan aka PM, Amelia, Joan, and Reggie), which is interrupted by Joanne, who is interrupted by 3 members of YIKES (Young, Imaginative Kids Emulating Superheroes), who Reggie relays a thick hyperbole about the history of GASP, whom they admire. A mom of one kid shows up and shoos YIKES home, so GASP keeps talking...and then the skeleton of the new fort collapses into smithereens (I guess they didn't follow city code!), so they go for a swim. Amelia falls asleep and dreams she's floating on the ocean but, as it grows dark, it seems like she's floating in the stars. This seques into the end of Amelia telling Rhonda about the dream, who is busy chanting cheers as they walk to the pep rally, where Reggie, who rejected Rhonda in another book, seems to be starting to crush on her. There, Joan is on a sugar high and is behaving so embarrassingly that Rhonda tries to make up stories about her to diminish their friendship down to an unembarrassing level, which fails when Joan yells out to her. During the pep rally, unfortunately, the human pyramid collapses and one of the girls is injured, leading Amelia being called in as an alternate (remember, she was chosen but stepped down so Rhonda would get in). The next section shows Joan talking to her dad, who's a soldier stationed on the other side of the world - this foreshadows later events.
Amelia is giving her dad a tour of town as she narrates what it's like having him around all the time. After that, she reveals that she and Joan are now good friends. At Joan's house, she and Mary Violet (who always looks like a mime) are busy helping Joan's mom make "creamy cookie bon bomb" candies. They pass off the orders from neighbors to Reggie & PM, who are in the Amazing Mobile, which they promptly crash with the candies onboard. Later, Rhonda is walking with Amelia here and there trying to get her to agree to go to cheerleading practice, and she finally relents. When they arrive, Britney is instantly mean to her, but the cheer coach intervenes and Amelia shows how good she is - so good that the other girls are in awe, after which she runs off because she realizes that she's supposed to be meeting Principal Wright with her parents, and she's already late. Naturally, the 3 adults are upset, and the principal gives her a stern talking to because of her colorful language at school. That night, Amelia and her mom, Mary, are having dinner with Tanner's boyfriend/Amelia's teacher, Mr. Harrison, after which Amelia gets some good advice from him and learns that Tanner, who's off touring, wrote diaries.
Next, A, R, PM & R are talking when they're interrupted by Rhonda's snooty, rich parents who say they're taking her spoiled younger sister to the mall. This kind of gives us a little insight into Rhonda's tendencies. The girls go to practice, where they actually have some fun but the principal arrives and bans her from the squad because he feels she's not a fit representative of the school. She walks home in a funk but then remembers what Mr. Harrison said and goes to Tanner's old and new houses to find them and, while she finds some diaries, and learns a few things, such as that she probably had a crush on Amelia's dad, Mike, in elementary school, and how Mike once tried to protect Tanner from a bully, and then there's the magazine article, but she doesn't really feel like she found anything useful, so she writes her a letter because Tanner hasn't written to her in a long time since she left on tour.
We flashback again to when they still all lived in New York and Amelia is talking with her BFF, Sunday, because Mike and Mary always fight. She's in such a bad mood that when their friend, Ira, comes over, she's mean to and then hits him. When she heard Principal Wright criticize her bad behavior, she immediately thought of that horrible event and can't disagree that she's bad. We are suddenly torn from this to a story of fighting the Park View Terrace Ninjas, exagerrated by Reggie to one of the YIKES members. They start talking about the broken fort and the little boy goes and gets the genius, Turnip Brain, who agrees to fix it for $50. He gives her some pretty heady advice, which makes her realize that Mr. Harrison was right - she's holding herself back with her own negative self-image. She goes with her dad back to NYC and, while he packs up the last of his stuff, she finds Sunday and they go to visit Ira's house, where she apologizes to Ira and his mom for what she did, setting a great example for young readers.
After returning to her town, Amelia is telling Rhonda and Joan about the revelation that Tanner used to crush on Mike, and that she could've ended up being Amelia's mom, which is mind-blowing for them. Amelia then urges Rhonda to go to a GASP meeting and tells her that Reggie misses her. At the next meeting with the principal, Rhonda interjects herself and tells him that if he doesn't reinstate Amelia, she and all the other cheerleaders will quit. It turns out to be a bluff but he fell for it and caved. She had found out that Amelia had dropped out and this was her way of repaying her. Later, the girls are on the field cheering for the crowd and everyone's really loving it. Afterwards, Britney invites them all to her house for a pizza party, but she wants Joan to get a bunch of her mom's candies for the party. They confront Britney about her behavior and she passes it off as helping them be more successful (a clear indicator of what her home life does to her) and, despite Britney being mean to almost all of them, they leave feeling like they had a good time. That's when A&R met R & PM, and Reggie is upset because they completely forgot that he had invited them over. Then they notice that Turnip Brain finished the clubhouse and it looks great. Reggie becomes even angrier, however, when he learns they forgot him to go to Britney's house, and he essentially kicks her out of GASP. When they get to her house, Mary announces that there's been an accident involving Joan's dad, and it's not certain if he's alive. All the kids freak out and are very confused about what to do, but they go to Joan's house and give her moral support, setting another good example in this book. As they sit consoling the distraught Joan, the phone rings and the glorious news that her dad is okay is relayed. This part brought tears to my eyes, again.
The scene shifts to a community part at which the cheerleaders perform, followed by Tanner. After the concert, Tanner apologizes to Amelia for not writing and they're back to normal (a great deal of aunt-niece love). Reggie and Rhonda also reconcile their friendship with a sweet gesture by Rhonda, and he says he'd like to take her out on a date when he's mature - in 30 years. The book concludes with a look in on Joan's family, who are taking care of her dad. More tears!
Honestly, I hope we can find more of these books because they really have developed into something worth reading!
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