Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: The Private Diary of My Almost Bummer Summer with Cecily, Matt the Brat, and Vincent Van Go Go Go (Melanie Martin Novels) [Paperback]

Carol Weston (Author)

Book Description

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

Written by the advice columnist of Girls’ Life magazine, this hilarious companion to The Diary of Melanie Martin finds Melanie off to Holland–with her best friend!

Dear Diary, You will never ever believe this! It is too good to be true!! Guess who is going with us to Amster Amster Dam Dam Dam? Cecily!

Since Cecily’s mom is having surgery, Melanie’s parents invite Cecily on their family trip to Holland. Melanie thinks having her best friend along will be terrific. But things don’t go exactly as expected. First Melanie loses her luggage, and soon it looks like she’ll lose Cecily’s friendship.

But Holland isn’t a total disaster. Along the way, Melanie learns to look through the eyes of van Gogh, Vermeer, and Anne Frank. Soon she discovers that being a good friend means seeing the world through your best friend’s eyes, too.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: The Private Diary of My Almost Bummer Summer with Cecily, Matt the Brat, and Vincent van Go Go Go by Carol Weston provides yet another perspective on the European vacation, first visited in The Diary of Melanie Martin or: How I Survived Matt the Brat, Michelangelo, and the Leaning Tower of Pizza. A trip to Holland turns (almost) torturous when the fourth-grader's best friend starts buddying up with her obnoxious brother.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6-In the summer before fifth grade, Melanie Martin records her thoughts and rhyming verses. At about the same time, her mother wins a grant to study the art of Vincent van Gogh in Amsterdam and decides to take the whole family along. Melanie dreads spending the vacation with her younger brother, "Matt the Brat," and leaving her best friend, Cecily. When Melanie's family learns that Cecily's mother has breast cancer and will need time to recover from surgery, they invite Cecily to join them. At first, Melanie is thrilled, despite the anxiety they all share for Cecily's mother's health. However, as the trip progresses, she begins to resent the fact that her family seems to enjoy her friend's company more than hers. In time, Melanie learns not only about Amsterdam's history and culture, but also how to relate to others in a considerate, honest manner. Her entries are bouncy and sometimes overly gushy (as diaries sometimes are), yet convey growing sensitivity to other people's feelings. Melanie presents information in an accessible manner that sometimes borders on the didactic or merely vague. Throughout her vacation, she reads Anne Frank's diary and considers how the girl's words resonate with the world today. Children who enjoyed the humor in Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin's P. S. Longer Letter Later (Scholastic, 1998) will especially enjoy this title.
Farida S. Dowler, formerly at Bellevue Regional Library, WA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Yearling (June 10, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440418992
• ISBN-13: 978-0440418993
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,237 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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: A real "that's just like..." book, September 13, 2004

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: The Private Diary of My Almost Bummer Summer with Cecily, Matt the Brat, and Vincent Van Go Go Go (Melanie Martin Novels) (Paperback)

When you open this book, you will find yourself peeking into the private diary of Melanie Martin, a ten year old girl living in New York with her mom, dad and Matt the Bratt (aka little brother!). Her mom is an art teacher who teaches her kids to appreciate art, and she loves when they do, even if its only because it includes naked people or blood scenes!
The story starts when summer vacation has just got out, and our girl Mel is getting bored. She and her mom do puzzles. It is one utterly boring day when Melanie's mom gets a phone call telling her that she's got the grant (for her teaching) and they're going to Amster Amster Dam Dam Dam!
They barely get this news before it is discovered that Cecily's mom (Cecily is Melanie's best friend) has got breast cancer.
Mel's mom invites Cecily on the trip and Melanie is overjoyed!
They all leave together for Amsterdam. They all expirience lots of adventures including lost luggage, a topless beach, LOTS of museums and a HUGE argument.
Mel thinks Cecily is getting way too much attention so they silently fight.
Will the fight turn this best-friend bliss into a bummer summer?
Read and find out!
Melanie Martin Goes Dutch is a great book that plenty of kids can empathize with - even grown-ups too!
I hope everyone will enjoy this book as much as I have, including Carol Weston's other fantastic books!
3 cheers, two thumbs up, plus five WHOLE stars as well!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melanie Gets Better and Better, March 14, 2005

By 

TR (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: The Private Diary of My Almost Bummer Summer with Cecily, Matt the Brat, and Vincent Van Go Go Go (Melanie Martin Novels) (Paperback)

The sequel to The Diary of Melanie Martin is just as charming and rings with the same truthful voice, as Melanie records the ups and downs of a vacation in Holland with her family and best friend. Melanie is reading the Diary of Anne Frank on this trip, and this historic diary lends a thoughtful note to Melanie's own diary, which includes dealing with the threat of the cancer which has infected her best friend's mom. With the heroine's observations as witty as ever, Melanie Martin Goes Dutch will delight young readers as they experience both van Gogh paintings and topless beaches through Melanie's eyes.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My summer vacation with a Dutch Touch, June 26, 2004

By 

Camille "at the BookMoot!" (Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: The Private Diary of My Almost Bummer Summer with Cecily, Matt the Brat, and Vincent Van Go Go Go (Melanie Martin Novels) (Paperback)

Wishing you could take a trip this summer? The title of this book just makes me smile. Melanie's mother has a grant to study Van Gogh in Amsterdam for the summer and the whole family gets to go along. Melanie's diary of their trip is a fun read. Travel disasters such as lost luggage, an annoying little brother, and a fight with her best friend are not what she imagined her vacation would be like. Melanie is reading Anne Frank: the diary of a young girl. As events unfold on their trip Melanie finds herself empathizing with Anne. Her visit to the Secret Annex is very poignant.

I loved "hearing" the Dutch phrases (complete with pronunciation,)smelling the food and seeing the sights through the eyes of a character who is the same age I was when I lived there. This is a very funny book. The presence of Anne in the background of the story gives the story a sweetness beyond the humor.