Amalee [Hardcover]

Dar Williams (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

A remarkably moving, large-hearted child's eye novel of friendship, illness, and coming together by acclaimed singer-songwriter Dar Williams.

Amalee's world is all out of order. She's used to chaos, because of the frequent presence of her father's bantering, bickering group of fun friends. But when Amalee's dad becomes seriously ill, the chaos takes new forms -- and the ways of coping come from some very unexpected places.
With clear-eyed, tender, funny prose, Dar Williams gives us a child's eye view of a world under pressure, with everyone rising to the occasion in his or her own unique way. Both moving and wise, this marks the debut of a major middle-grade talent.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7–"In some ways, I'd grown up with five parents," the title character says, referring to her father and his "four big goofy" longtime friends, who have helped to raise her since her mother decamped and then died. In this engaging first-person narrative, 11-year-old Amalee relates the details of her life, from peer issues and teacher problems at school to her father's sudden illness. With him in bed and seriously sick, the four friends take turns caring for both father and daughter, and in the process each one of them realizes his or her potential. Although the end is weighted by a lengthy hypnosis scene in which therapist friend Joyce helps Amalee and her father express their deepest feelings, readers will be cheering for this likable protagonist.–Susan Patron, Los Angeles Public Library
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 5-8. "In some ways, I'd grown up with five parents," says 11-year-old Amalee, who spends every Friday evening with her single dad and his four "big, goofy friends" from college. Amalee has struggled to navigate a middle-school social scene that is dominated by mean girls, and when her father contracts a life-threatening illness, she finds her insecurities ballooning out of control. It's her father's family of friends who hold everything together and help Amalee discover her own strength, forgive the imperfections in herself and her family, and form genuine friendships. Williams, best known as a singer and songwriter, writes a poignant, funny debut filled with wholly endearing characters. Amalee's appealing first-person voice sounds a bit too wise in places, but Williams writes about a preteen's emotional life with piercing honesty, particularly the paralyzing fear a parent's illness brings and the agony and guilt of mistakes. Readers will be charmed by Williams' eccentric, lovable characters and her sharp observations about the world of both middle-schoolers and adults. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439395631
• ISBN-13: 978-0439395632
• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 5.5 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,550,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Hug for "Amalee", April 25, 2004

By 

Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amalee (Hardcover)

In her fiction debut, Dar Williams introduces us to Amalee, an only child whose work is turned upside down when her single father becomes ill. Though she is an only child, Amalee is surrounded by adults - her father's best pals.

The adults have been close since their days in college. None of them have children with the exception of Amalee's dad, so she alternates between feeling like one of the group or feeling too young around all of them. One woman is a therapist, full of advice for Amalee; another woman is a chatterbox. One is an aspiring artist; another is an aspiring chef, always cheery, who has Amalee assist him with a late-night cooking fest.

Amalee thinks about others frankly - a la Alice in the Phyllis Reynolds Naylor series - but often bites her tongue, keeping secrets to herself. She does not want her classmates and teachers to know her father is sick; she does not want her father and his friends to know that she herself has no friends at school.

Ultimately, Amalee finds herself thankful for the extended family she has in her father's friends - and finds some new friends of her own. Readers can relate to (and discuss) Amalee's fear of loss and her fear of being a bully-by-association. This is a heartwarming book, not too sappy, not too cliché. It is a clean, quick read, good for young readers and their families.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, April 24, 2004

By 

Jessica E. Emerson "jessicaem" (Waterbury, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Amalee (Hardcover)

I received this book today as a gift, and I read it all in one sitting. I loved it. I related to Amalee, even though the details of her life as an eleven-year-old are quite different than the details of mine were, because her character is very authentic. The level at which she examines her life, the way she struggles between what she thinks and what she can manage to say, is intelligent, yet authentically preteen. As the novel progresses, the other characters grow beyond caricatures in the same way that I think an eleven-year-old begins to see adults (and herself) as layered people.

Best of all, the book just made me feel good without attacking me with a bunch of lame, blatant emotional missiles. And it achieves what I think is the responsibility young adult literature has over other types of literature: it teaches a lesson, offers the reader something to take with him or her about growing up, in a very genuine way.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommended for dar fans, kids, pretty much everyone, April 20, 2004

By 

Franklin Demuth (New Paltz, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Amalee (Hardcover)

I thought Amalee was great. The story and characters were engaging, and the writing and imagery were certainly on a par with Dar's usual level of excellence. It reminded me quite a bit of Nora Raleigh Baskin's books, which are also set in Ulster County, NY (definitely check these out if you enjoyed Amalee). Dar has an exceedingly rare gift: the ability to tell beautiful, interesting stories via both song and novel.