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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Third-grader-to-be Amelia has just moved from New York City to a small town, along with her mom who has just split with her dad and must stay with her mom's younger, hipper sister. This first volume consists of five episodes from her first year, summer through Christmas, trying to figure out her new life with a new family situation and new friends. Gownley mixes realism, pathos, and humor remarkably well and conveys a lot with his cartoonish illustrations.
In the summer, Amelia finds a group of three friends while wandering the neighborhood--well, one friend, the girl who pines after him (and immediately becomes Amelia's arch-enemy), and his silent sidekick. The four become inseperable (despite constant insults and bickering and Amelia learning on the first day of school the three are the "nerd" group and she's now a nerd by association). They have a variety of adventures and sarcastic dialogue, and Amelia slowly learns more about each of them, her mom, her dad, and her aunt, and in the process learns more about herself.
In the summer, Amelia finds a group of three friends while wandering the neighborhood--well, one friend, the girl who pines after him (and immediately becomes Amelia's arch-enemy), and his silent sidekick. The four become inseperable (despite constant insults and bickering and Amelia learning on the first day of school the three are the "nerd" group and she's now a nerd by association). They have a variety of adventures and sarcastic dialogue, and Amelia slowly learns more about each of them, her mom, her dad, and her aunt, and in the process learns more about herself.
Amelia's parents have recently divorced, causing Amelia and her mom to leave NYC, and move in with her Aunt Tanner. Amelia quickly formed a bond with three other kids (although one of them is more like an arch-nemesis), and this book compiles a variety of exploits from the group.
The artwork is lively, colorful, vibrant and very appealing to kids. I have no complaints there. Mostly I didn't especially care for this because Amelia is an annoying brat. Sure, she probably has cause to be grumpy, and I can deal with a decent dose of the grouchies. I guess what really did me in was how Amelia and Rhonda continually bicker, argue, insult and bitch at each other throughout the title. UGH. I get enough of that in my real life from my two sons, I don't want to see it ad naseum in a potentially decent graphic novel!
While there is some gross-out humor, it is quite minor, only in a handful of pages. There are some lectures and potential life-lessons here too, but that never felt preachy.
Yeah, mostly it was the in-fighting that I disliked. I asked Trevor (10) how many stars he would rate it, and he said 3. He did like it enough to request that I get the next ones in the series sent in, so my local library will soon have about EIGHT of these things for us/him. I am not sure if I will read any of them, but I wanted to make sure and point out that this title is a decent selection for your tween son or daughter, and they may even find it funny!
The artwork is lively, colorful, vibrant and very appealing to kids. I have no complaints there. Mostly I didn't especially care for this because Amelia is an annoying brat. Sure, she probably has cause to be grumpy, and I can deal with a decent dose of the grouchies. I guess what really did me in was how Amelia and Rhonda continually bicker, argue, insult and bitch at each other throughout the title. UGH. I get enough of that in my real life from my two sons, I don't want to see it ad naseum in a potentially decent graphic novel!
While there is some gross-out humor, it is quite minor, only in a handful of pages. There are some lectures and potential life-lessons here too, but that never felt preachy.
Yeah, mostly it was the in-fighting that I disliked. I asked Trevor (10) how many stars he would rate it, and he said 3. He did like it enough to request that I get the next ones in the series sent in, so my local library will soon have about EIGHT of these things for us/him. I am not sure if I will read any of them, but I wanted to make sure and point out that this title is a decent selection for your tween son or daughter, and they may even find it funny!
A tween comic about friendship and family. A bit heavy-handed morally, with jokes about bodily function thrown in to balance things out. There's plenty of name-calling and fights to keep parents uncomfortable, but again there's talk about the true meaning of Christmas for balance.
Realistic view of child of divorce while sprinkling humor throughout to keep from being depressing. Great illustrations too.
It’s good to see a female protagonist in a graphic novel. Amelia is interesting and imperfect but is willing to learn. She makes mistakes, but she isn’t a jerk. I think fans of Big Nate would like the Amelia Rules books. The art is also perfect for the story and I felt like the first book was just the introduction to Amelia. I’m looking forward to learning more about her!
I love how Amelia talks into the camera constantly. I love the crazy illustration style. I love seeing the early history of the gang. I love seeing Rhonda and getting to know her. Such a solid upper elementary comic book series with many many words. Sophisticated and simple and approachable all at once. LOVE.
Some of my first comics as a kid were Amelia Rules comics, which my dad would happily buy me with his stack of superhero comics. So Amelia Rules comics are some of the first books I remember reading and probably helped found my love of reading. Imagine my excitement at seeing these recently at my local library! This was a lovely dose of nostalgia into life as a nine-year old. Amelia has moved with her mom to live with her Aunt Tanner after her parents' divorce. All of the characters feel real and relatable- like you could have been friends with them growing up. I appreciated that this never felt overly childish and was still super fun for an "adult" reader. I'm so glad that Amelia is back in my life and I look forward to reading more of her adventures.
Meh. I found a later volume on our shelf at work when I was looking for a quick read since I left my current book at home. I put it back and thought I'd track down book one. It wasn't bad, but I didn't care about the characters enough to read more.
DNF @ p.16
I don't like the art (why one sideways eyebrow??), the lettering is terrible and I don't know why, and the characters are annoying as all get out. Why would I want to read a book about a bunch of kids just constantly insulting and yelling at each other? And there's a LOT of girl-on-girl hate, which I cannot stand and will not tolerate.
I don't like the art (why one sideways eyebrow??), the lettering is terrible and I don't know why, and the characters are annoying as all get out. Why would I want to read a book about a bunch of kids just constantly insulting and yelling at each other? And there's a LOT of girl-on-girl hate, which I cannot stand and will not tolerate.