Most of this week’s reading has been of books I read in the 1990s, or at least were books from series I read in the 1990s. I never read Amber Brown, though, possibly because by the time they were published I was too old for them. I wanted to take a look, though, given that the author did the Matthew Martin series. In the first one I tried, Amber Brown is Not a Crayon, we meet the main character, who writes in the first person. The great drama of the book is that her best friend Justin is moving to the other side of the country. I suspect if I’d read this as a kid, I would have strongly sympathized, as I had two best friends move away on me in elementary school, back when we had to resort to letters to stay in touch. (Fortunately the internet arrived and with it, AOL Instant Messenger.) Amber Brown Is Green with Envy was a different story, as it’s about Amber’s problems with her now-divorced parents, her unease with her mother moving on, and her resentment that her dad suddenly wants to be back in her life despite being work-obsessed in her younger days. Divorce and split families was thankfully something I never experienced, save through books. Despite the I could see going back to this series when I do another kidlit sweep, as I like the way “I, Amber Brown, tells stories”.
Matilda, with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was another re-read. Given that it’s by Roald Dahl, though, absolutely nothing is lost. I understand that Netflix is attempting some drama based on this, but I can’t imagine it rivaling the original movie with Mara Wilson and Danny DeVito. Matilda is the story of a precocious young girl who from an early age exhibits extreme talents in both reading and math, despite the fact that her parents dislike her, regard book-reading as a noxious habit, and would be happy she would sit enthralled in front of the television like normal children. Matilda finds her joys at the local library, reading through Dickens, but it’s when she’s sent off to school that things get interesting. Although Matilda’s teacher Miss Honey is The Best Teacher Ever (sorry, Mrs. Jewls) and recognizes her gifts, the school headmaster is The Worst Ever and tries to stick Matilda in a torture-closet called The Chokey. Simmering with rage, Matilda unexpectedly discovers she has other gifts. When I first read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone back in 2007,* Harry’s magical talent manifesting itself in times of stress immediately brought Matilda to mind.
Some quotes:
So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.
“Fiona has the same glacial beauty of an iceberg, but unlike the iceberg she has absolutely nothing below the surface.”
*The friend manically laughing at the top of that post is the same friend who ran off on me. That was from one of our many AIM convos!
Reading Freely 
Your reviews have made me realize how many 90s books I missed out on! 😆 I am not sure why I was never introduced to Matilda because that sounds right up my alley. I did read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and found it interesting (though not as fun as the movie Willy Wonka, which I was obsessed with). A lot of my reading was actually hand-me-downs from my mom’s generation, now that I think about it… Trixie Belden was a favorite. 🙂
I haven’t heard of her! I suspect I found more by virtue of my parents’ no-tv household.
I missed all of those books. When I started reading seriously in the 1950s it was Andersen and the Brothers Grimm that got me started followed by Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, and Kipling’s Mowgli stories followed with others like Hans Brinker, Black Beauty, and Robinson Crusoe. I soon graduated to Sci-fi from greats like Clarke, Van Vogt, and Bradbury.
I saw a few of those classics through the Great Illustrated Classics series. Were you reading the actual books or juvenilized adaptations?
I was reading the actual books, and I still have my original copies of most of them like the two volume Lewis Carroll with the original illustrations by Tenniel, a two volume set of fairy tales and Kipling’s Jungle Books.
I never read Amber Brown, I was also too old for them by the time they came out. But Matilda remains one of my favorite books of all time. I love the movie too, which doesn’t often happen. Eleanor also loves both and I love sharing these books with her.
Did you ever encounter the Matthew Martin books?
I did not, though looking at that link, I also read all the Sweet Valley Twins, Sweet Valley High, and Sweet Valley University books. I also read the Roswell series which was WAY better than the show.
DEFINITELY. I did a Roswell reads to reads post here:
And tried the first episode of the reboot and was so underwhelmed that there were no words. They basically tried to create the original story by having all the kids as adults STILL LIVING IN ROSWELL. It does not work at all. The only positive was that Liz was once again Liz Ortecho, with a dead sister named Rosa. I liked “Liz Parker’s” dad in the original, but that always bothered me. William Sadler was the best part of that show, though. The Skins and what they did to poor Alex (and the introduction of Tess) were all annoyances. I thought Alex was a better Alex than the guy they had modeling him in the orignal book.
SVH is going to be part of an upcoming post — featuring it and Babysitters Club, called “Boys Aren’t Supposed to Read THAT!”.