Call Me Amy

Gr 6–8—Amy Henderson's eighth-grade year has been very lonely. The teen lives in a tiny town in Maine, and her only friend moved away last year, in 1972. She takes walks to get out of her house, but there aren't many places to go except the convenience store, the pier, and the post office. One day, the postmistress asks Amy to deliver mail to Miss Cogshell, a scary old lady living near the pier. Amy learns that the woman has many stories to tell and that she isn't scary at all. Then a classmate tells Amy a secret. He has taken an injured seal pup to his house, but what he has done is illegal and he's afraid of getting caught. With Miss Cogshell's help, they try to nurse the animal back to health and Amy discovers she has found new friends in the most unlikely of places. This character-driven novel is told from Amy's point of view. The protagonist grows throughout the story, from a shy loner to having two friends and speaking her mind in front of her adversaries at school as well as to the whole town. There are a few strains on believability, especially when Amy and Craig are spotted after midnight by a classmate's father and by Miss Cogshell. That aside, Amy is a reliable narrator and easily relatable.—Natalie Struecker, Rock Island Public Library, IL