A Review of Amelia's Middle School Graduation Yearbook by Marissa Moss

Amelia's Middle School Graduation Yearbook 
by Marissa Moss
Published April 28, 2015
Creston Books
Hardcover
80 Pages
Review copy provided by publisher

Goodreads Summary
Amelia is excited to graduate from middle school, but she's nervous about starting high school, especially when she finds out she won't have her best friend, Carly, with her. In her graduation yearbook, drawings and "photos" nostalgically recap her earlier years and notebooks as Amelia figures out how to face the changes ahead.

My Thoughts

This is the final installment in the wildly popular Amelia's Notebook series. Like the others it is filled with Amelia's thoughts, hopes, and troubles. Amelia uses writing and drawing to discover her true feelings about situations and events. This notebook is called a "yearbook" because Amelia has used it to document middle school events, highs and lows. Rather than purchase a published yearbook, she saved the last few pages for classmate signatures. 

Amelia's problem in this story is the fact that she is finishing 8th grade and learns that her best friend Carly will be going to a private high school instead of starting high school with Amelia. This makes the end of year preparations even more bitter-sweet. I like how Amelia reacts to the Carly's news with anger. Although we adults would encourage children to react with happiness for your friend, Amelia's reaction is more typical of a middle school girl. She feels betrayed by her friend and is worried for herself. Then after lots of thinking (and drawing and writing), Amelia decides to make this end of the year celebration special for her friend. 

I LOVE Amelia. She is quirky, insecure, creative, emotional and funny. The notebooks are fun to read with adorable illustrations, and captions to accompany the story. The full color pages add to the appeal. Readers will love this latest (and seemingly last) Amelia's Notebook (yearbook).