Main Street Bk. 1:
Welcome to Camden Falls
by Ann M. Martin

    WELCOME TO CAMDEN FALLS by Ann M. Martin
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  5/1/07
    Publisher:  Scholastic
    Reviewed by:  Marta Morrison
    Rating:  5 Stars


    I really enjoyed reading the first book in the new MAIN STREET series by Ann M. Martin.  I am glad that she is
    doing another series.  I have many girls in my 5th-grade class who are still reading THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB
    and this new series is a little more timely.  

    It is the story of two sisters, Flora and Ruby, who lose their parents one night in a terrible car crash.  Their
    grandmother picks up the pieces of their lives and they move to Camden Falls to live with her.  Their grandmother
    owns a sewing shop and the girls help her out.  There they meet two other girls -- Olivia, who lives next door and
    whose grandmother is co-owner of the shop, and Nikki, who is poor and lives on the wrong side of town.  

    Flora, Olivia, and Nikki are all in sixth grade and have the same teacher, and Ruby will be in fourth grade.

    The author has made a simple story very contemporary by including many social issues that kids need to face each
    day.  There is a family contending with Alzheimer's Disease and another with downsizing.  Flora is faced with trying
    to know who she is and who her parents were, there is a lady who has been in a concentration camp, another family
    who has a teen with Down Syndrome, and poverty.  It is an intelligent and not watered down story.  

    I am looking forward to reading the next one in the series and introducing them to my class in the fall.