Luv, Amelia Luv, Nadia (by Marissa Moss)

Amelia gets terrible news from her friend--Nadia's father's been in a car accident! Nadia's troubles make Amelia start to think about her own father. Who is he? Will she ever meet him? Should she write him a letter? This cliffhanger installment of Amelia's ongoing journal will delight and surprise readers with real, pull-out letters and a sequel.

 

This book deals with several topics attractive to 8- to 12-year-olds: Halloween, comic-strip illustrating, and letter writing, plus a few less familiar situations, such as having to care for an injured parent or trying to solve the mystery of an absent parent.

The real fun for any kid will be in piecing together this interesting story via entertaining letters and postcards. A group of girls ages 6 to 11 who read this book together unanimously named the four pull-out letters inserted into actual envelopes as this book's highlight. As always, the watercolor doodles and illustrations were also a big hit, and they support the text well. But the sample group of readers was a little annoyed at the ending; in this book, Amelia never does meet her father, nor does she even actually write a letter to him. You've got to get the sequel for that.

Author: Marissa Moss
Illustrator: Marissa Moss
Publisher: Pleasant Company
Publication date: October 1, 1999
Number of pages: 30
Paperback price: $7.95