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Book Review: The Amber Brown Collection

The Amber Brown Collection (Vol 1-8), by Paula Danziger

We received the Amber Brown collection as a gift after our last house fire.  These books are suggested for ages 7 & up.  I love to see my kids read and was excited to try out a new set.   I read all eight this week.

You Can’t Eat your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown

It’s the summer following third grade and Amber Brown is crossing the pond.  She has an aunt in London and when her parents separated, her dad moved to Paris.  Unfortunately, Amber comes down with chicken pox on the second day in London.  Kind of a cute story, but really weighed down with the parent line.  Amber has a “Dad book” that she talks to because she misses her dad so much.  When her dad insinuates that he wasn’t sure her chicken pox were real or if they were a story to keep the two apart, I got uncomfortable.

I’m only a kid.
Why do I have to worry about all of this?

I tend to agree.  I realize that not all kids have a perfect family life.  But this is pretty heavy for a 7 year old to read.

Amber Brown Goes Fourth

It’s the beginning of fourth grade and Amber Brown misses her best friend who moved away before summer vacation.  Lots of kids have a hard time with the beginning of the new school year and trying to make new friends.  It seems fairly realistic in the way the fourth graders relate to one another.  But the storyline gets high-jacked with negative emotions.  Yes, Amber Brown resolves to “go fourth” with determination, but there is so much negative, so much worrying.  Young children should be reading light-hearted stories where the “conflict” is how much of a mess they made and how much trouble they are going to get in.

Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit

When Amber Brown’s school work begins to suffer, she vows to do better.  But there are so many things that have her worried and make it hard to focus on school.  Her mom wants her to meet her new boyfriend.  Amber wants things to go back to the way before the divorce.  Her biggest fear is that she might like the boyfriend and that wouldn’t be fair to her dad.  It’s a lot for a nine-year old to deal with.

Forever Amber Brown

This book deals with change.  Some changes are good and we chose them.  Others are kind of forced on us.  When Amber’s mom receives a marriage proposal, the two of them head to Alabama to stay with their best friends and make some decisions.  Amber likes the time spent with her best friend, Justin, who moved away just 6 months earlier.  While there, she learns that change is inevitable, but she will forever be Amber Brown.

Amber Brown Sees Red

This book is full of silly episodes, beginning with skunks in the school.  Yeah, just a little unrealistic but kids would totally eat it up.  More negativity as Amber’s dad announces his intention of moving back to New Jersey.  And what children’s series doesn’t have a bad haircut as the icing on the cake.

Amber Brown is Feeling Blue

Amber is forced to choose between her parents.  Thanksgiving with Mom and boyfriend Max in Washington State, or New York City with her dad.  There is also a new girl in her class, Kelly Green.  Despite a rocky first day together, the two girls become friends.  The story dwells so much on Amber’s emotional turmoil, that the character development is seriously lacking.

I, Amber Brown

It’s Christmas time, but this book fails to spread the holiday cheer.  As Amber’s father moves back from Paris, they begin a joint-custody routine.  Amber even pits the parents against each other when her mom says no to pierced ears, but her dad doesn’t know about that conversation.  When dad finds a place to rent nearby, Amber loves the family that lives upstairs.

Amber Brown is Green With Envy

This is the last book in our box set, but not the last one in “the colorful world of Amber Brown.”  But these books just aren’t very colorful to me.  In this book, there is more fighting between the parents and Mom and boyfriend decide to move to a new house so ex-husband won’t have a history there.  And Amber is mad about it.  Dad goes on a date. And Amber is mad about it.  Once again, the whole book is filled with anger and negativity but everything is supposed to be all better with the last two lines…

Life can be very confusing . . . . filled with good things and filled with bad things.

But it’s my life . . . . . and I have choices.

Recommendation

I only give this series 2 out of a dozen buttered rolls.  It was pretty easy reading for the age suggested 7 & up.  The books are not a “numbered series.” I read Amber Brown is Feeling Blue first and was totally confused.  The author spends very little time in character development so if you read them out of order, you will be lost.  So I looked on the “Box,” figured out the order and followed the story line much better.  They should be read in order, even if the author won’t tell you what that order is.

And then there is the content.  The cover promises an “Always Bright, Amazingly Bold, Amber Brown.   I disagree.  Amber was rarely bright (whitty or positive), and her boldness flirted with rude and disrespectful because it was always aimed at her parents.  Divorce is real, it is ugly, but I doubt these books would help a child cope.  They took real situations and dwelt on the negative.  I don’t think you can spend 150 pages filled with hate, anger, and malice, then say “but it’s my life” and expect it all to be better.

I am grateful that my children are not in Amber’s situation.  Maybe a child from a broken home would find comfort in these books, confirmation that they are not the only ones that feel this way.  Still, I think there has to be a better, more healthy way to help children cope with those feelings.

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What Is That? – The Saga Continues

Last week I posted about our glorious relics found while cleaning out my parents house.  You can read about it here.  This week is Part II of that story.  Last week was mostly from the “Great Room” above the garage.  This week is mostly from the basement.

“What is that?” is the most common question the kids have asked while cleaning?  So far, the answers have included the following:

What Is That?

tithing slips from 1993

4 decorative clocks

an old water heater

the Ark of the Covenant

cooking gadgets galore

the framed Christmas Card we gave my parents to announce our first pregnancy – Caitlin

a picture of my parents on their wedding day

a stuffed Tiger Fish

a tablet that nobody knew existed

Atlantis

enough MRE’s to feed the 101st Airborne

Christmas lights… again

coupon for .50cents off a 12 pack of Coke… expired 2002

the Kusanagi sword that was supposedly lost as sea

rocking chair my mother had as a child

2 unopened attic fans

a glass jar my mother says is older than she is

Llywelyn’s Coronet

3 unopened things of Dominos

a jar of Mango strips

a bouncy ball hidden under a floor for 30 years

spiderwebs… lots and lots of spiderwebs

Peking Man

a racquetball that I had thought was a pile of cobwebs until I picked it up

a big rock …x3000

4 (or more) drills that don’t work

an unused 125,000 BTU furnace

a large wooden turkey

The Jules Rimet Trophy missing from Brazil since the a970’s

30 year old fiberglass HVAC ducts (duct board) x 40

enough glass jars to make Ball and Kerr jealous

and finally…

Old Milk
Jars of old chocolate and dehydrated milk… apparently from April, 1978. Yummy!

 

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Update: Weight Loss Attempt

The weight loss attempt continues.  Despite my sense of foreboding that nothing good would come to pass, I have endured… so far.  And how has that turned out?

Weight Lost

Not a single pound!  Actually the first five days found me several pounds heavier (and wanting to give up) but I’ve lost them these last five days.  So I have a net loss of Zero… but I kind of lost some. In a way… I’ll count that as a victory.

Swimming

The swimming is going… well… swimmingly!  I’ve missed a few days because of how much I hurt when we got home from my parents, but not many.  Most days we come home and get some dinner and have about an hour of pool time left.

The mask and snorkel make all the difference in the world.  Whether or not swimming  contributes to any weight loss, the swimming without pain has been fantastic.  It is all attributable to being able to do it without arching my back.  It seems silly, but the little arch needed to breath makes swimming unbearable.  But with the snorkel I can go for quite a while.

The first few times I wasn’t able to do many laps.  My ankles tired easily and my body wasn’t accustomed to the actions.   I probably only did 3 laps (there and back) the first day.

As my activity continues my endurance increases.  I’ve done more laps with each passing day.  I think I was between 12-15 yesterday.   Those were broken into two swim periods separated by a time playing with the kids in the shallows.

Emotional Well-being

I feel fine.  Not really any better than normal, but no worse.   Everything is just … bland.   I’m hoping that persistence over a longer period of time will net some positive results.  (or is it negative results since I’m looking to lose weight?).

Overall my hopefulness isn’t really changed, largely because my weight hasn’t changed.  I’ve been better at the late hour calories, but not perfect.  I’ve really enjoyed the time in the pool.  The feeling of weightlessness is nice.   Carrying around all this weight makes gravity a nemesis, and so the buoyancy water provides is awesome!

Hopefully next time I give an update I’ll have some positive (or negative?) results to report.

 

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Book Review: Three Against Hitler

Three Against Hitler by Rudi Wobbe and Jerry Borrowman

I don’t usually read non-fiction books but this one makes three in a row.  I always liked historical fiction books, because I could learn the history while being entertained.  In fiction the satire used as social commentary is often much more enjoyable than reality.  But Jax suggested Josh read Three Against Hitler, so I thought I would try it after he was done.  The hardest part about reading this book was knowing that it really happened just the way it said.

Style

Three Against Hitler follows your basic autobiography or even a memoirs format.  With the help of Jerry Borrowman, Rudi Wobbe tells the story of his life.  The title felt a little deceiving to me though.  If you are a history buff you may know the name Helmuth Huebener.  Although Helmuth plays a vital role in the events of the book, it is not his story.  I wanted the book to follow all three of the boys more closely (in fact there was a fourth boy who is mentioned throughout and I wonder why it was not Four Against Hitler).  A third party documentary would have been able to do that better.  But this is Rudi’s story and he tells of things from his own first hand knowledge.

Content

Brief history lesson.  Helmuth Huebener, Rudi Wobbe, and Karl-Heinz Schuibbe were three LDS teenagers at the start of WWII.  They witnessed the atrocities committed by the Nazi’s on a very personal level, as friends and church members were attacked for various reasons.  But unlike many who accepted the propaganda or suffered in silence, these three spoke out against the regime.

Helmuth and Rudi listened to BBC News Reports and distributed flyers contradicting Nazi propaganda.  Helmuth’s contempt for Hitler was blatant as he wrote flyers entitled, “Hitler the Murderer” and “Only Hitler is the Guilty One.”  Helmuth and Rudi recruited others to help spread their anti-Nazi flyers.  Unfortunately, they were ultimately caught and that was just the beginning.  Four young men, three under the age of 17, were charged with “Preparation to High Treason and Aiding and Abetting the Enemy.”  All four were found guilty to one degree or another, and sentenced as adults.

“In the movies the story always ends at a dramatic moment like this.  But time goes on for the living.  So it did for me.”
–Rudi Woobe

The rest of the book follows Rudi’s imprisonment, liberation by the allies, and life after the war.  Rudi showed great faith and gratitude amid his trials.  He lived a life dedicated to truth and personal freedom.  I cried as he recounted reentering one of the prisons 40 years later.  It is because of people like Rudi that evil is kept at bay.

Recommendation

10 out of 12 Buttered Rolls

I give this book 10 out of 12 buttered rolls.  My only real criticism is that I wanted more detail, more history, more facts about each of the individuals involved.  However, it is a wonderful account of young men who are willing to think and act for themselves.  These are the type of young men I want my boys to look up to.