Amelia's Middle School Survival Guide by Marissa Moss

Classic: Marvelous Middle Grade 

Monday Review

Gram's Approved! See my
review to see why.

Published: June 23, 2009 

ISBN: 1416979875

Genre: Middle Grade, realistic fiction, humorous fiction
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Themes: middle school, friends, sisters, family
Add it on: Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes And Noble/ *Indie Bound*

About The Book: Nothing says middle school better than embarrassing moments and gossip. And no one is better at capturing the middle school experience than Marissa Moss’s Amelia. Now two bestselling classic Amelia books, Amelia’s Most Unforgettable Embarrassing Moments and Amelia’s Guide to Gossip, are together in a value-priced bind-up with a special Amelia eraser key chain. This is the perfect summer reading for middle schoolers and middle-schoolers-to-be.

First Line: (This is a notebook, you can start anywhere.)

Here's One Of My Favorite: "Only Cleo could say that about eggs that were either runny or rubbery—either way completely gross."

Kid Review: "Each page is colorfully illustrated with hilarious images and word bubbles relating to each rule, hint, and tip. Though it’s meant to be a humorous book it also gave me true tips for surviving class. What I loved most about it is the vast vocabulary. I learned MANY new words and how to use them in day to day life. All Moss’s books are great for an elementary school child yearning to soak up new words and tips for school and life." —Ayesha Reviews

Parent Review: "Moss understands how kids think and remembers what it is like to be a kid. At the same time, she has a remarkable ability to step into her stories, either in the form of older sister Cleo, a parent or another kid who just happens to have a flash of wisdom and good advice, and help Amelia through her problems, showing her how to fix things on her own rather than doing it for her. To me, that is the best kind of parenting and teaching you can find and I am happy to have Marissa Moss here to teach my kids a thing or two."—Book 4 Your Kids

What I Thought: As a grandma, I'm always trying to find ways to inspire my grandchildren to read and write. My granddaughter is beginning middle school so a survival guide is exactly what she needs. Middle School is the perfect time to begin writing a journal. She also loves to draw and I wanted to show her how a journal could be illustrated, too. 

    The Amelia Notebook series is a great introduction to keeping a journal or writing/art notebook. I know my journal got me through some really tough middle school days. Like the time a couple of tough girls followed me home, making fun of my clothes then knocking the books out of my hands. That night I carefully sketched out a plan: A map to walk home a different way each day for the rest of the week. 
     A sample teachers lesson used this series to inspire writing in their students. See that here.

Photo credit: David Toerge

About The Author and Illustrator: Marissa Moss

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Who: "I’ve been making children’s books for a looooong time. I sent my first picture book to publishers when I was nine, but it wasn’t very good and they didn’t publish it. I didn’t try again until I was a grown-up and then it took five years of sending out stories, getting them rejected, revising them and sending them back over and over until I got my first book. Now I’ve published more than forty books and each new one is still hard in its own way. Each one takes a lot of revising because I never get things right the first time. That used to frustrate me. Now I expect it. And I don’t mind, because that gives me permission to make mistakes. It means I can take risks and try new things because I don’t have to be perfect - I can always make changes." —Marissa Moss

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Keeping notebooks is just plain fun! Here's one I just started for my new birding hobby.

What kind of notebooks do you keep?