I read this book because I remember being a fan of the Amelia series as a child. After rereading it, I was very unimpressed by it. The plot had no substance to it, the characters were shallow, and the format was very distracting. The plot focused on Amelia trying to become more like another girl and morph her own personality to be more like Clarisse. The story kind of dances around the plot and doesn't really define a main purpose. At the very end Amelia decides to change back into "the old Amelia" but the reader doesn't get any sense of a purpose. The characters also were underdeveloped. The main character, Amelia, was the only one even slightly developed because it is a series. However other character like Clarisse and Carly had nothing to them. Maybe this is because I haven't read the other books in the series, but I just didn't get a good sense of character from anybody. Lastly, the format of the book is distracting. As a child I loved the doodles and childish handwriting on the pages, but reading it as an adult made me very distracted. I think that this could be a problem for students because they would get so caught up in the doodles and side-notes that the plot would escape the reader. I think that the main idea of the story might have been that you should be yourself despite what others think but the idea just wasn't accurately conveyed. ( )

This series is just the cutest!!
The All-New Amelia is one my favorites ( )

In this book Amelia is attempting to change herself to be more like the new English girl, Clarisse. Clarisse seems to be perfect, but Amelia comes to realize that being Amelia is better than being someone else just to impress Clarisse. She nearly loses her best friend in her attempts to get Clarisse as a friend, but finds herself again and gets back to being who she is. She realizes that she likes herself best as herself. ( )