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). 

A Review of This Journal Belongs to Ratchet by Nancy J. Cavanaugh

Goodreads page

320 pages

Ages 9 and up (from the publisher) Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Release date: April 1, 2013

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars!

Review copy provided by netgalley.com



Brief Summary
This story is told by the main character, Ratchet (who is actually named Rachel).  Ratchet's mom passed away when she was young.  She lives with her eccentric, environmentalist father who does not want her to go to public school.  Ratchet tells the story through the writing assignments in her homeschool journal.  When she isn't writing, Ratchet can be found helping her mechanic father fix cars in their garage.  She is also a skilled mechanic, thus the nickname, Ratchet.  

Ratchet is desperate to learn more about her mother, but her father seems reluctant to discuss her mom.  This creates a wedge between them and Ratchet feels increasingly angry and resentful toward her father. As events unfold, readers find out that his reasons for deliberately withholding information from her are an attempt to protect her from the difficult truth.  

Although she loves her father and does not want to upset him, Ratchet longs to go to a public school and have a "normal" middle school life with real friends.  In her own words, what she really wants is to change her "old, recycled, freakish, friendless, motherless life into something shiny and new."

My Thoughts
I really loved this book.  I loved how Ratchet is a down to earth girl who shops at Goodwill, can make a go-cart run better than any boy and cares about her father.  The journal is written in her handwriting in a wide variety of writing forms (poetry, how to, persuasive essay, etc.). Her entries are clever, entertaining and amusing, thinly masking her obvious feelings of loss and loneliness.  Another aspect of this book that I like is the fact that Ratchet is a middle schooler, but the book is very accessible to ages 9 and up.  It is not a difficult read and I think girls and boys alike will enjoy her story.

Themes/topics include: loss of a parent, homeshooling, talents, global issues such as pollution and recycling, friendship, and self-acceptance.

Congratulations to Nancy J. Cavanaugh on her excellent debut novel!

Visit Nancy's website for more info on This Journal Belongs to Ratchet.

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