With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin (Melanie Martin Novels) [Paperback]

Carol Weston (Author), Marci Roth (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Melanie Martin Novels

Dear Diary, All of us are excited about this vacation, but Mom might be too excited.

Mel is back and off to Spain, the land of bullfights, flamenco, and Picasso. But this is no ordinary vacation—the Martins are visiting Mom’s old boyfriend. Mel’s worried that Mom might still have feelings for Antonio . . . until she meets Antonio’s son, Miguel, who’s almost exactly Mel’s age—and cute! So instead of spying on Mom for Dad, she ends up getting pretty distracted herself. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6--Melanie is back in her third adventure as she and her family vacation in Spain. The 11-year-old reveals her trials and triumphs in her diary, scattering goofy poems and the pronunciation of Spanish words throughout. Her brother, "Matt the Brat," is a source of both entertainment and exasperation with his bathroom humor, and Melanie is worried about her parents as they spend time with her mother's old flame. Despite her needless anxiety, she discovers that Antonio has an attractive, 12-year-old son, Miguel. The Martins attend a bullfight in Valencia, explore museums in Madrid, and enjoy flamenco dancing in Seville. Along the way, Melanie develops a crush on Miguel, who travels with them to several sites, and must deal with the pain of saying good-bye at journey's end. She is a likable, realistic character, and the book contains a lot of humor and drama. The diary confessions ring true, and fans of her previous novels will enjoy this sequel, although new readers could easily get into the story. A great choice for those who enjoy diary-format fiction or funny stories about growing up.--Alison Grant, West Bloomfield Township Public Library, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-6. Readers who have been to Italy (The Diary of Melanie Martin) and Holland (Melanie Martin Goes Dutch) with spunky Melanie, her pesky brother, "Matt the Brat," and her art-loving parents, know they are in for another thoroughly enjoyable adventure abroad. This time the family accompanies Dad on a business trip to Spain during Melanie's fifth-grade spring break. Melanie's mom is looking forward to seeing an old boyfriend, Antonio, and Melanie the worrier is already imagining the worst. What Melanie never imagined is that she would fall for Antonio's handsome son, Miguel. As with the two previous novels, the story is told partly through Melanie's delightful diary entries and partly through her lively first-person narration. Weston does a great job of giving Melanie an authentic preteen voice, including Melanie's comments about her gross little brother, and her whining at her parents about visiting yet another museum. Her greatest feat, however, is expertly weaving loads of history and art, as well as Spanish words (with pronunciations), throughout the text. Lauren Peterson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (April 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440419727
• ISBN-13: 978-0440419723
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,041,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Weston writes for kids, teens, and grown-ups and has been the advice columnist at Girls' Life for 15 years. Newsweek calls her a "Teen Dear Abby," and Parenting says, "Carol Weston gets girls." The daughter of writers, Carol went to high school in Armonk (BHHS) and France (SYA). At Yale, she studied comp lit, graduating summa cum laude. In Madrid, Spain, she got an M.A. from Middlebury--and met her husband, playwright Rob Ackerman.

Her first book, GIRLTALK: All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You (HarperCollins), has been translated into ten languages and in print since 1985. Now in a fully updated fourth edition, it's as sensible, encouraging, and "outstanding" (School Library Journal) as ever.

Carol loves being a guru for girls, but uh oh, she'd always meant to write fiction! Finally she gave herself some advice: Do it! In 2000, Knopf published The Diary of Melanie Martin, a funny novel about a traveling girl and her brother Matt the Brat. (Psst, their art teacher mom doesn't know that the kids' favorite museum game is Point Out the Naked People.)

What else? Carol and Rob live in Manhattan with two daughters and one cat. Her birthday is September 11, and she likes Boggle, Hearts, Bananagrams, skiing, walking, art museums, foreign films, dark chocolate, and good books. She thanks you for ordering her books and invites you to visit carolweston.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melanie made me a fan of reading, February 16, 2005

By 

Melanie J. "Have a bengal day" (Michigan but my heart is in Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin (Melanie Martin Novels) (Hardcover)

I used to hate reading. My mom would make me read every day. Then she bought me the Melanie Martin books. I can't put them down. I read them over and over again. I even started my own diary just like Melanie.

If you have a little girl who hates to read like I used to then buy them the Melanie Martin books and they'll be totally hooked.

Cya,
Melanie a HUGE fan of Melanie Martin books!!!!!!!!!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Love Melanie!, January 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin (Melanie Martin Novels) (Hardcover)

With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin, is my favorite Melanie yet, and I LOVED the first two! Melanie is now 11 and she goes to Spain for vacation and meets a really nice boy but then can't tell whether he likes her back. Her adventures at a bullfight and flamenco show and just eating Spanish food are so funny and I also learned a lot about Spanish painters and customs and words. You HAVE to read this diary! I totally recommend it! By the way, I love Carol Weston's column in GL, too. And I like her website: It's melaniemartin.com - I once wrote to her and she wrote back!

Erica in Las Vegas
GREAT BOOK!! Five stars!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Greatest Book Ever, April 13, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin (Melanie Martin Novels) (Paperback)

With Love from Spain Melanie Martin is written by Carol Weston. The book is about Melanie Martin and her family's vacation; her mom Miranda and her dad Marc have some business in Spain so they bring their daughter Melanie and her son Matt with them. While they are there they make plans to see Miranda's old boy friend from Spain and his son Miguel, and Melanie meets Miguel's cousin.
I like the book With Love from Spain Melanie Martin because it's about a girl I can relate to. For instance Melanie is ten and I'm ten; she's in fourth grade and I'm in fourth grade. She keeps a travel diary just like I do and we both travel a lot. I also like the book because Carol Weston includes interesting facts in the book. For example, Picasso painted the same painting many times in many different ways and they're all hanging up in a museum in Spain. I recommend the book for readers age 9 to 15.

Ciao, [ch-ow]
Carner Round