Lights, Camera, Amalee

by Dar Williams

Book Overview

From acclaimed singer-songwriter Dar Williams, the story of a girl trying to figure out her place in the world . . . and in her neighborhood. When Amalee's grandmother dies, she inherits a very strange object: a huge champagne bottle filled with over a thousand dollars' worth of change. Amalee is told to spend the money on something important, so she decides to make a movie about endangered species. Soon there's as much going on behind the scenes...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0439803527
• ISBN13: 9780439803526
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Scholastic Press
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 8 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 3 to 7

Customer Reviews

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Amalee is back. Some of you may have met her is Dar Williams' first book titled AMALEE. Whether you've had the pleasure before or not, LIGHTS, CAMERA, AMALEE is an excellent book for girls ages 10 and up. Amalee's summer has started with several surprises. She arrives home one afternoon to find her father and several family friends waiting with quite interesting news. Amalee's grandmother, one she didn't even know existed, has asked to meet with her. No one is totally sure what to make of this request since the woman cut off all ties when her daughter, Amalee's mother, was married and then killed in an accident shortly after Amalee's birth. All Amalee knows when she walks into her grandmother's elegant home is that the woman she is about to meet is near death. The meeting ends up being a rather pleasant one, and Amalee leaves feeling she might be learning a bit about the mother she never knew. Shortly after their meeting, Grandmother dies, and that's when the next surprise occurs. There is a phone call and a delivery one afternoon. The delivery is a huge box that contains her grandmother's final gift to Amalee. It is a giant champagne bottle filled with change. During her visit, Amalee questioned her grandmother about the fascinating bottle, and she was told that the change had been saved over the course of her grandmother's marriage. Now the money and the giant bottle are Amalee's. With the help of an amazingly cute sixteen-year-old neighbor, Amalee takes the change to the bank where it is revealed that she has inherited over $2,000. Remembering the wise words of advice from her grandmother, Amalee decides to use the money to make a movie about endangered species, yet another surprise she didn't expect when her summer began. Author Dar Williams tells the story of Amalee and her movie with great care and detail. Readers learn right along with Amalee as she researches her topic, learns the ins and outs of movie making, and relearns just how special family and friends can be. Written in an easy-to-read style that will appeal to young readers, LIGHTS, CAMERA, AMALEE is an inspirational tale. Reviewed by: Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky"

Shedding Light

Though she is an only child, Amalee is surrounded by adults - her father's best pals. The adults have been close since their days in college. None of them have children with the exception of Amalee's dad, so she alternates between feeling like one of the group or feeling too young around all of them. In Lights, Camera, Amalee, she finally meets her maternal grandmother, who passes away a short time later and leaves her granddaughter a large container filled with coins. Thanks to the cute older boy next door, Amalee is able to bring it to the bank and roll up the coins, which sum up to almost two thousand dollars! Thinking of a film made by her teacher about his autistic son, Amalee decides to invest the money in her own film. With the help of her family, friends, and various scientists, environmentalists, and even tai-chai enthusiasts, she creates a short film about endangered species, filling her summer with frog facts, interviews, filming, editing, and awareness. Through the ups and downs of her father's illness in the first book, simply titled Amalee, and her filmmaking in this new book, the title character remains thankful for the extended family she has in her father's friends and is happy to find new friends of her own. Having lost her mother at a young age, she doesn't remember her at all, and she is extremely close to her father. She wonders what her mother was like when she was her age, then learns more about the accident which took Sally's life. These stories are similar in tone and style to the Alice McKinley books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. They are heartwarming - not too sappy, not too cliché - and qualify as clean reads. Readers will be inspired by Amalee's creativity and compassion. Recommended for ages 10 and up.

Gentle story of a girl's ongoing growth.

Dar Williams' LIGHTS, CAMERA, AMALEE tells of a grandmother's death and Amalee's strange inheritance of a big champagne bottle packed with over a thousand dollars' worth of change, to be spent on 'something important'. Her decision will bring her to new friendships and other changes - including a link with a long-vanished, dead mother. Her decision to get behind the camera opens up a new world of possibilities in this gentle story of a girl's ongoing growth.