Melanie Martin goes Dutch

Publishers Weekly

Melanie Martin Goes Dutch: The Private Diary of My Almost Bummer Summer with Cecily, Matt the Brat, and Vincent van Go Go Go by Carol Weston provides yet another perspective on the European vacation, first visited in The Diary of Melanie Martin or: How I Survived Matt the Brat, Michelangelo, and the Leaning Tower of Pizza. A trip to Holland turns (almost) torturous when the fourth-grader's best friend starts buddying up with her obnoxious brother. (May) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Children's Literature

Melanie Martin, whom readers first met during her family's trip to Italy, is on the go again, this time to the Netherlands. This time around, almost-fifth-grader Melanie is even more excited to go abroad, because her best friend Cecily is joining Melanie, her parents, and her younger brother Matt on their adventure. Melanie's mother is traveling on a grant to study art, so museums are certainly on the Martins' itinerary, but they also engage in other Dutch pastimes such as bicycling and visiting a cheese market. Melanie's cultural observations, as well as her descriptions of her family, are breezy and funny. Her honest takes on Dutch culture, particularly on the food, are spot-on for a pre-teen traveling abroad. The novel's lighthearted tone is balanced by two serious issues: Cecily's mother's breast cancer and Melanie's growing sense of connection to fellow diarist Anne Frank, whose house she visits in a particularly poignant scene. Armchair travelers will enjoy accompanying Melanie on her trip, and many will find Melanie's diary so entertaining that they might not even realize that they're learning something along the way. 2002, Alfred A Knopf,
— Norah Piehl

School Library Journal

Gr 4-6-In the summer before fifth grade, Melanie Martin records her thoughts and rhyming verses. At about the same time, her mother wins a grant to study the art of Vincent van Gogh in Amsterdam and decides to take the whole family along. Melanie dreads spending the vacation with her younger brother, "Matt the Brat," and leaving her best friend, Cecily. When Melanie's family learns that Cecily's mother has breast cancer and will need time to recover from surgery, they invite Cecily to join them. At first, Melanie is thrilled, despite the anxiety they all share for Cecily's mother's health. However, as the trip progresses, she begins to resent the fact that her family seems to enjoy her friend's company more than hers. In time, Melanie learns not only about Amsterdam's history and culture, but also how to relate to others in a considerate, honest manner. Her entries are bouncy and sometimes overly gushy (as diaries sometimes are), yet convey growing sensitivity to other people's feelings. Melanie presents information in an accessible manner that sometimes borders on the didactic or merely vague. Throughout her vacation, she reads Anne Frank's diary and considers how the girl's words resonate with the world today. Children who enjoyed the humor in Paula Danziger and Ann M. Martin's P. S. Longer Letter Later (Scholastic, 1998) will especially enjoy this title.-Farida S. Dowler, formerly at Bellevue Regional Library, WA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

The subtitle and cover set the tone, writing style, and scene for this breezy, fun, lighthearted read that quite naturally folds in contemporary issues of breast cancer fears and the meaning of intolerance. Told in diary format like its predecessor (The Diary of Melanie Martin, 2000), Mel's bubbly personality recounts the family's summer trip to Amsterdam when her mom, an art teacher, receives a grant to study van Gogh. Mel's BFF (Best Friend Forever), Cecily, is invited to go along while her mom undergoes and recovers from breast cancer surgery. Mel's excitement over having Cecily on the trip quickly turns to annoyance when her best friend pays more attention to Matt, her six-and-a-half-year-old brother. Mel's daily diary entries recount the week's adventures that include lost luggage (for days), Matt's lost baby tooth, and her sense of loss of parental approval and feeling left out. The diary device works especially well: Mel's "quippy" poems are clever and funny and express her feelings; she phonetically spells out Dutch words; and her penchant for using words three times for emphasis are all so, so, so right for the voice of the character. The venue of Amsterdam is an opportunity for Mel to discover the Dutch masters, to relate passages from Anne Frank's diary to her own life, and to compare the Dutch ways of doing things to home in New York City. This can stand alone without having read the first and the ending leaves the door open for more stories. Go, go, go girl. (Fiction. 7-10)