Customer Reviews

The Meaning of Life . . . and Other Stuff (Amelia Rules)

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Sometimes it feels to me that when it comes to realistic stories about learning and growing the comic strip world for kids used to have some serious advantages over the comic book world for kids. Used to be that newspapers provided the primary way most kids read comic panels. Then comic pages started to stultify, reprinting the same dull strips ad nauseam, often long after the original creators died. After that the newspapers themselves started to drop as people moved to online content for their news. Combine that all with the rise of graphic novels for kids as legitimate library-worthy fare and it's a perfect storm. The comic strip is dead! Long live the comic strip! Bridging the gap between the past and present is Jimmy Gownley. If we take the idea that smart talking kids were best promoted by Charles Schulz back in the day then Gownley's "Amelia Rules" series is its natural successor. The difference between the two, however, comes down to change. Unlike "Peanuts" you can watch the characters in "Amelia Rules" grow and progress with each chapter, even as Gownley himself grows and progresses as an artist and a writer. Now with "The Meaning of Life and Other Stuff" he lets his characters look back a little and reminisce about what it was like when they were younger, even as they step into their ever shifting futures.

Amelia Louise McBride. Child of divorce. Apple of her Aunt Tanner, rock goddess's, eye. It's been years since Amelia moved to Pennsylvania from New York and played superheroes with her friends. Now their old hideout has fallen to pieces, and there are other changes as well. When a member of the school cheerleading team gets injured it's time for the alternate to take over . . . and that's Amelia. Add in the fact that Tanner's on tour and not emailing her back, the principal is riding her hard, she's remembering past wrongs that need to be righted, and then there's Joan's father serving overseas . . . It's a big year for Amelia this time. Give it this much, though. It's never boring.

Gownley has said that hegrew up with "Peanuts" and at first his series felt like an extended version of the classic strip. Since then, however, he's created six more chapters in the series and one Christmas special. With each addition he's gotten a little more serious too. One of the things I've always respected about these books is their serious undercurrent. Fears run rampant through these books, whether they're fears of abandonment, abandoning, not being a good person, or concrete worries about losing a parent. On top of that, Gownley has a tendency to throw in Amelia's thoughts on life, love, living, friendship, etc. in each chapter of this series. These ruminations have the potential to be didactic and postulating, but Gownley's pretty good at tone. Understandably some books are better at this than others, but in the case of "The Meaning of Life" he seems to scale back the bigger questions by the end to concentrate simply on what one does when a friend is in trouble. Actually, now that I think about it, it's sort of an answer to the title itself. What's the meaning of life? Being there for the people you care about. Could be a cheesy message. Isn't.

Each book in the series also steps the art up a notch. It's consistent, to a certain extent. You wouldn't pick up the first book in the series ("The Whole World's Crazy") and think it was from a different artist's pen. That said, Gownley has more and more fun with borders, perspective, p.o.v.s, and so on with each title he writes. In this particular book he even manages to include the faded remains of scotch tape on some of the older memories, which I appreciated. The colors are done entirely on a computer, but in a good way. It's not jarring. There's even an odd section where Gownley tries his hand at some pseudo-manga, but the less said about that the better. Overall, you won't have anything to complain about visually here.

Now seeing as how this is the seventh book or so in the series the question of whether or not you need to read them in order does arise. Heck, do you even need to have read a single Amelia book prior to this one for the story to make sense? On the one hand, the book does sort of stand on its own. Gownley provides a handy dandy cast list at the start for folks who may have missed an issue somewhere along the line (it's not exactly updated, though, since some of the stuff listed there is out-of-date). After reading this book through I think I can say that you can read it on its own if you've read at least one or two Amelia books before, but don't try leaping into the series at this point. For one thing, the physical appearance of Rhonda will completely throw you. At some point she did something to her hair and she now appears far less demented than she does in the book's flashbacks. For another, this book won't be nearly as satisfying as it is if you aren't aware of some of the trials the kids have resolved. Reggie's sudden interest in Rhonda, for example, or Tanner's return.

I'll admit that I harbor a bit of an "Amelia Rules!" addiction. I have a hard time not reading and rereading the series constantly. Partly I think that this is due to the quality of the books. Partly it's due to how long and satisfying each one is (set aside far more than the customary 15 minutes for each one of these). For kids who love books like "Smile" and other realistic comics, the Amelia series is a must read and this newest chapter a necessity. A strong continuation of a beloved character.

For ages 9-12.

THE MEANING OF LIFE...AND OTHER STUFF is the seventh Amelia Rules! graphic novel -- not including A Very Ninja Christmas, which I haven't seen but which seems to be shorter and slighter than the other books -- about a preteen girl and her odd friends in Anytown, Pennsylvania. (Not literally Anytown -- I'm sure it has a real name -- but figuratively, since Amelia moved there from the big bad city of New York in the first book.)

I've written a lot about this series before, so I don't have a whole lot to add this time. Gownley is still telling his story in chapters that sometimes feel as if they could have been individual comic-book issues, through they're mostly 32-36 pages long this time, and his characters are still growing up at a pace far slower than real kids, though they are growing up, which is good to see. Gownley also still has a deeply buried cynicism, which only burbles to the surface occasionally -- the principal at (nudge, nudge!) Joe McCarthy Elementary School, a grumpy old idiot who hates Amelia for insufficient reasons, is the best example -- and a deeper sweetness that almost masks the fact that he can craft interesting characters and resonant plots. (Amelia Rules! tends to float along on a half-goofball, half-tween-drama level, so when it drops into the story of the father of one of Amelia's friends, lost in action while serving in the army overseas, it's surprising and almost shocking.)

So this volume is about rebuilding the old clubhouse, about the the travails of the cheerleading squad, and about Amelia's rock-star aunt Tanner, who ran off suddenly in the previous book to go on tour and has been entirely absent since. It's soap-operatic in the good sense -- a long story, filled with characters whose lives you get to know and care about -- but that does mean that it's better to drop back and start at the beginning, even if that end of the story was a bit weaker and sillier.

This is the seventh graphic novel in the Amelia Rules series. This is a graphic series I would definitely recommend to my students. They will definitely be able to identify with her.
Amelia is a typical middle schools student with the same typical problems as middle school students today. Her parents are divorced, she has earned a reputation as a "bad kid", and she faces how to help a friend whose father is serving in combat. These are all realistic things that my middle school students face. I've read these in e-book format and will definitely purchase these in physical form for my shelves. Really nice graphic novel. This is coming from someone who really doesn't care for a lot of graphic novels. This one I recommend.

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"Amelia Rules: The Meaning Of Life... And Other Stuff"
Written & Illustrated by Jimmy Gownley
(Atheneum Books, 2011)
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NOTE: spoilers below
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This is the seventh volume in the "Amelia Rules" graphic novels, a thoughtful, surprisingly challenging series that I am a big fan of. That being said, I have to admit, this is not my favorite volume, as the characters seem caught in a lull and I wonder where the story is headed. Amelia and her pals are growing up, slogging their way through middle school and continuing to shape their identities. Some characters, notably the boys Reggie and Pajamaman, are basically put on hold here -- Reggie develops a crush on a girl, but that's about it. Meanwhile, Amelia confronts various unpleasant realities, including being labeled "a bad kid" at school, and having to knuckle under to a stern school Principal. Her rockstar aunt is off on tour, and is largely absent from the action (which is okay by me) and Amelia is caught up in making new friends while reconnecting with old ones. The book whizzed quickly by, and I found myself weighing whether to show it to my kid, who is a little young for the series, but loved the earlier books. I am particularly hesitant as the author pushes the characters into darker territory -- nothing too harrowing, but more appropriate for older (tween-to-teen) readers. In literary terms, it's better than a lot of popular fiction for kids, although I did find the ending, in which the kids confront the sorrows of modern war, after one girl's father is lost in combat, to be a little maudlin and strained. It's an issue that does confront a lot of kids these days, but the scene didn't ring entirely true for me.

Anyway, I was psyched to see a new Amelia Rules out, although in this volume the series does seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern. Looking forward to the next volume, and hoping there will be more forward growth ahead.