Mel - Hardcover

Berry, Liz

4.11

382 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670839256 ISBN 13: 9780670839254

Publisher: Viking Juvenile, 1991

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Left alone following her mother's nervous breakdown, Mel, a seventeen-year-old English girl, starts to redo her run-down house and finds herself enthralled by a rock star, but his enthusiasm makes her suspicious and his ex-girlfriend jealous

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From School Library Journal:

Grade 8-12-- Seventeen-year-old Melody Calder, a child of poverty and abuse, determines to change her life after her mother is institutionalized. She redecorates her London row house while working in an antique/junk shop, which she transforms into a profit-making business. At the same time, she turns the downtrodden and depressed local residents into lobbyists for their rightful social services and meets a rock star who falls in love with her. This novel has one of the biggest problems exhibited by a number of recent YA novels: too many of life's and society's problems crammed into one person's life. However, Mel's character commands respect; she is so likable that readers will identify with her and cheer her on. She's real--she makes mistakes but learns and grows from them. Her refusal to cave in to despair sets an example for her neighbors and readers alike. The language is characteristically British YA, but won't put off Americans. The plot is organized so that interest is picqued immediately and retained. Even though the happy romantic ending smacks of fairy tale, Mel's honest reaction to her mother's return home is refreshingly realistic. Overall, it's a worthwhile purchase, easily booktalked. --Ellen Ramsay, Amphitheater High School, Tucson, AZ
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Publishers Weekly:

This winsome tale of self-transformation is a hodgepodge of home renovation tips, grass-roots political activism and modern day fairy tale--complete with a sensitive, rock 'n' roll Prince Charming. Hopelessness and her mother's madness have driven Mel to the brink of suicide. When her mother finally is institutionalized, Mel sees the possibility of creating a new life for herself. Moving in with neighbors, she sets to work cleaning and redecorating her mother's squalid house. On a visit to the local junk shop, she meets Mitch, a rock star hiding from his own fame. By the novel's end, Mel has redone her house, passed her all-important exams, mobilized her racially mixed neighborhood, transformed the junk shop into a thriving antique business, won a tidy sum at the racetrack and, of course, negotiated a romantic relationship with Mitch. All this could easily strain the patience of the most credulous reader. However, the sheer exuberance of the narrative makes it easy to forgive--if not actually believe--the plot's wild excesses. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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