Meeting Melanie

by Nancy Garden

A dangerous drama unfolds on a remote Maine island
Almost-twelve-year-old Allie Ward's summer is not looking especially fun-filled. Seal Island, Maine, is a pretty isolated community, and the only other resident kids her age have suddenly decided they don't want to hang around girls anymore. More important, her lobsterman father has injured his back and isn't able to work his usual job. To compensate, Allie's mother and father are trying to set up a business selling pies. Allie doesn't mind helping her parents out, and she wouldn't want to leave the island for anything, but she longs for a friend. Enter Melanie Rochambeau. She and her family are summering on the island in an elegant home that they've just inherited. Allie and Melanie hit it off almost immediately, but their easy alliance is challenged by Melanie's mother, who turns up her nose at socializing with working-class people. And soon Allie finds herself embroiled in a Rochambeau family secret involving Melanie's older sister. The situation escalates into one that could potentially destroy a family, and even endanger two lives.

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 25, 2002

About the author

A versatile writer, Nancy Garden has published books for children as well as for teens, nonfiction as well as fiction. But her novel Annie on My Mind, the story of two high school girls who fall in love with each other, has brought her more attention than she wanted when it was burned in front of the Kansas City School Board building in 1993 and banned from school library shelves in Olathe, Kansas, as well as other school districts. A group of high school students and their parents in Olathe had to sue the school board in federal district court in order to get the book back on the library shelves. Today the book is as controversial as ever, in spite of its being viewed by many as one of the most important books written for teens in the past forty years. In 2003 the American Library Association gave the Margaret A. Edwards Award to Nancy Garden for lifetime achievement.

In Remembrance: Nancy Garden

Reviews

[Melissa Fields · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good one. It is technically a childrens' book, but the elementary school library it was in deemed it "inappropriate" for the children. Not quite sure why though...I suppose the unwed pregnancy of Melanie's older sister might have done it. Though, the girl was 17 and wanted to marry the boy, but her mother thought he wasn't good enough and wanted to give the baby away ASAP. Not a very warm character :-(

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

A super sweet story about friendship & family set against class & social inequality. Plus a healthy dose of island life, NE coast style. A very enjoyable read.