Lights, Camera, Amalee (Hardcover)

by Dar Williams (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Grade 5-7–In this sequel to Amalee (Scholastic, 2004), a class assignment leaves the 12-year-old with the desire to make a movie, one with creativity, clarity, and integrity, as her teacher encourages. She does just that with a lot of lifes ups and downs along the way. The girls maternal grandmother requests a first-time visit with her, and she learns a bit more of her estranged relationship with Sally, Amalees deceased mother, whom her father and his friends are reluctant to talk about. It is a short, yet powerful visit, one that brings Amalee an inheritance of more than $2000 in coins, making her documentary-making venture possible. She wants to learn more about her mother, just as she wants to learn more about filmmaking and about her chosen topic: endangered species. Such learning occurs as she makes contacts at the New England Aquarium and Museum of Natural History in New York City and does other research. Through the process, she grows in many ways. Amalees newfound filmmaking skills coincide with her emerging life skills, evident throughout in this very satisfying story.–Tracy Karbel, Chicago Public Library System, East Vodak Branch
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Product Description
When Amalee's grandmother dies, she inherits a very strange object: a huge champagne bottle filled with over a thousand dollars' worth of change. Amalee is told to spend the money on something important, so she decides to make a movie about endangered species. Soon there's as much going on behind the scenes as there is in front of the camera, as Amalee deals with a new friend, a very cute older boy, her wacky family friends, and a host of other challenges. She also discovers something she never expected to find -- a link with her mother, who disappeared and died when she was very little.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9-12
  
• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (July 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439803527
• ISBN-13: 978-0439803526
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,099,597 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gentle story of a girl's ongoing growth., January 6, 2007

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Dar Williams' LIGHTS, CAMERA, AMALEE tells of a grandmother's death and Amalee's strange inheritance of a big champagne bottle packed with over a thousand dollars' worth of change, to be spent on 'something important'. Her decision will bring her to new friendships and other changes - including a link with a long-vanished, dead mother. Her decision to get behind the camera opens up a new world of possibilities in this gentle story of a girl's ongoing growth.

5.0 out of 5 stars Courtesy of Teens Read Too, July 12, 2008

By	TeensReadToo.com "Eat. Drink. Read. Be Merrier." (All Over the US & Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lights, Camera, Amalee (Mass Market Paperback)

Amalee is back. Some of you may have met her is Dar Williams' first book titled AMALEE. Whether you've had the pleasure before or not, LIGHTS, CAMERA, AMALEE is an excellent book for girls ages 10 and up.

Amalee's summer has started with several surprises. She arrives home one afternoon to find her father and several family friends waiting with quite interesting news. Amalee's grandmother, one she didn't even know existed, has asked to meet with her. No one is totally sure what to make of this request since the woman cut off all ties when her daughter, Amalee's mother, was married and then killed in an accident shortly after Amalee's birth. All Amalee knows when she walks into her grandmother's elegant home is that the woman she is about to meet is near death.

The meeting ends up being a rather pleasant one, and Amalee leaves feeling she might be learning a bit about the mother she never knew. Shortly after their meeting, Grandmother dies, and that's when the next surprise occurs.

There is a phone call and a delivery one afternoon. The delivery is a huge box that contains her grandmother's final gift to Amalee. It is a giant champagne bottle filled with change. During her visit, Amalee questioned her grandmother about the fascinating bottle, and she was told that the change had been saved over the course of her grandmother's marriage. Now the money and the giant bottle are Amalee's.

With the help of an amazingly cute sixteen-year-old neighbor, Amalee takes the change to the bank where it is revealed that she has inherited over $2,000. Remembering the wise words of advice from her grandmother, Amalee decides to use the money to make a movie about endangered species, yet another surprise she didn't expect when her summer began.

Author Dar Williams tells the story of Amalee and her movie with great care and detail. Readers learn right along with Amalee as she researches her topic, learns the ins and outs of movie making, and relearns just how special family and friends can be. Written in an easy-to-read style that will appeal to young readers, LIGHTS, CAMERA, AMALEE is an inspirational tale.

Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

4.0 out of 5 stars Shedding Light, April 26, 2008

By	Little Willow (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.

In Lights, Camera, Amalee, she finally meets her maternal grandmother, who passes away a short time later and leaves her granddaughter a large container filled with coins. Thanks to the cute older boy next door, Amalee is able to bring it to the bank and roll up the coins, which sum up to almost two thousand dollars! Thinking of a film made by her teacher about his autistic son, Amalee decides to invest the money in her own film. With the help of her family, friends, and various scientists, environmentalists, and even tai-chai enthusiasts, she creates a short film about endangered species, filling her summer with frog facts, interviews, filming, editing, and awareness.

Through the ups and downs of her father's illness in the first book, simply titled Amalee, and her filmmaking in this new book, the title character remains thankful for the extended family she has in her father's friends and is happy to find new friends of her own. Having lost her mother at a young age, she doesn't remember her at all, and she is extremely close to her father. She wonders what her mother was like when she was her age, then learns more about the accident which took Sally's life.

These stories are similar in tone and style to the Alice McKinley books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. They are heartwarming - not too sappy, not too cliché - and qualify as clean reads. Readers will be inspired by Amalee's creativity and compassion. Recommended for ages 10 and up.