Melanie in Manhattan (Melanie Martin Novels)
This is one in a series of Melanie Martin diaries. Melanie is just finishing 5th grade. She is almost a teenager and almost many other things. She has just returned with her family to her home in Manhattan. The family had been on vacation in Spain, where Melanie had met her first love and experienced her first kiss. Hence the unraveling of all kinds of pre-teen moods, questions, concerns and dilemmas. What follows is a diary of events that cover just a few months, though it seems much longer, of friendship squabbles, sibling squabbles, boyfriend crisis and madly multiplying mice. The story is serious and funny and full of true-to-life coming of age dilemmas. Interspersed with Melanie's story, is a picture of Manhattan from a teenager's eyes, a view of the art and architecture and culture of the "big apple" that many tourists and residents seem to miss.
I don't often enjoy reading diaries; but I found this one very entertaining. Melanie appeals to all of us who have been through the earth shattering "firsts" of pre-teen existence. She has just returned from a holiday in Spain where she met Miguel, the son of her mother's old boyfriend. A relationship sparks and Melanie believes she is in love. They part with a kiss and Melanie agonizes over the lack of emails from her faraway boyfriend.
The story is full of the typical teenage friendship dilemmas -- boys and territorial rights over best friends. When Melanie is feeling her lowest, her mother usually comes up with a good teenage morale booster comment like: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." This is an important lesson for everyone; but very important at this age. Inferiority complexes in pre-teens are quite common, especially with young people, like Suze, who try hard to spoil things for others in their attempts to be important themselves. The diary deals with other teenage dilemmas, often in a humourous way. When Melanie's not squabbling with her brother Matt, the siblings actually enjoy each other. They are besotted with their two mice, which were supposed to be male, but suddenly are reproducing. There are many humorous mouse-scenes interspersed with the daily drama of life in Grade 5.
From mice back to men, or little men, I should say, Melanie finds a new attraction on the home front, in the form of the class math wizard, Justin. Melanie is suddenly torn between her newfound feelings for Justin and her old feelings for Miguel. School closes for the summer and Miguel arrives. The Martins take on the job as tour guides and Melanie and Matt follow along learning more about their home community than most Manhattans learn in a lifetime. Melanie learns a lot about Manhattan; but she learns even more about herself.
There are many lessons learned in Melanie's short journey to the end of Grade 5 and the beginning of pre-teen life. Melanie's journey could be reminders of any of our journeys as well as consolation for those just beginning the journey. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.
