Amy Moves in

When I read this book as a child in the late 1960s, I didn't even know it took place in the 40s. You can't help but feel for Amy-- the new kid on the block. She's sweet, but flawed-- so anxious for cool friends that she doesn't seem to stand up for any principles-- unlike her older sister, Laura-- the "smart one." The book is full of warmth, adventure, good humor, and realistic family situations-- it remains one of the most memorable books of my childhood. The "spinoff" books were equally engaging-- "Laura," "Amy and Laura," and "Veronica Ganz" especially.

In my opinion, this book (along with Laura's Luck and Amy and Laura) is a children's classic, so why it is no longer in print is a mystery to me. I read this when I was in grade school in the 1970s and I found it wonderfully exotic. Imagine going to the convenience store to get penny candy and long pretzels out of a barrel! Imagine having a mother who looks like Joan Crawford (and this is considered a compliment!). The depiction of the Bronx during wartime is absolutely charming-- it's not the rough, slighlty seedy Bronx that one thinks of today.I think publishers have a tendency to remove books from print if they feel that the subject matter is dated. (I notice that the All of a Kind Family series is out of print, too!). This is a huge mistake. I grew up with a tremendous respect for and interest in the past as a result of reading "old" books as a kid-- I was always much more interested in reading about "yesterday," and I think I had better manners as a result of my reading! I'm sorry to think that today's kids might not be able to take the same joy in the bygone days as I did.

This was my favorite book of all time in fourth grade and still it remains #1 on my favorite books list after some years after fourth grade. It was the first book that I read by Marilyn Sachs, and that might explain why it is so good. As a nine-year-old kid way after Mrs. Sachs first wrote this, I could sympathize with Amy. Amy was a scrawny nothing (I was pretty skinny myself at nine) who was nine years old and had an older sister who she adored, and loved to imagine things. But that was where our similarites ended. I was more of a Laura fan, who spent her time reading books and sometimes had to go and save her sister from prospective bullies. But Amy still remains my favorite. Forty years after her publication, Amy Moves In will remain a great book despite its out-of-print. She might be a "goner" now, since there's some kids who will never read her, but those who did - they know she's an absolute joy.

I read this as a kid and I enjoyed it. The story supposedly takes place in the 1940's but things such as kids haven't changed all that much! It really focuses in on the lives of young kids; It talks about an ordinary closeknit family; Mama, Daddy, and their two girls Laura (oldest) and Amy (youngest). They just moved to a new neighborhood and Amy has mixed feelings and gets into all kinds of adventures. Things that bothered me were that I thought that Amy was sort of a wimp and cried too much and her sister and mother should have had her fight her own battles since Laura can't always be there to do it for her. Also, I think Amy gives in too easily to friends and she initially has a bad choice in friendships, her standards are too low, however that evens out in the end. Also, I could not believe how rude the storekeepers were in the story; talk about bad customer service. How can they stay in business if they yell at people??? However, that was life in the Bronx back then! I was also hacked off about the way one chapter it made girls seem inferior to boys and seemed to let boys get away with hurting girls and there seemed to be no closure to it. However I guess in a latter chapter they vaguely mention a settlement about the boy-girl dispute in the girls' favor but it isn't quite clear. Anyway, their ordinary family life is disrupted when Mama has a terrible accident and winds up in the hospital. Daddy's sister Aunt Minnie comes to live with them (she's a screamer and she's a neat freak!) and Mama's one night stay in the hospital turns into months. The end of the book was disappointing in that it left a lot of questions unanswered, however it's a series and if you read the two following books you get more answers. This is an interesting book and you kind of have to read it more than once in order to understand it better and to enjoy it more.

Amy's neighborhood is a special one. Amy has just moved to this neighborhood, unbeknowst of what follows. There's Aunt Minnie, Rosa, Cynthia, and Laura. There's Daddy and Mama. And of course, there's Amy. Things happen, although they can be boring, in Amy Moves in, and after reading, you may want to move to her neighborhood.