With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin

Carol Weston has proven once again that she can entertain and educate at the same time. Her latest children's book, With Love From Spain, Melanie Martin, provides an amusing linguistic travel adventure for kids ages 8 and up. Adults will chuckle and relate to the main character of Melanie, who feels the pain and confusion of first love while filling her senses with the compelling Spanish landscape. The Martin family band together for a two-week Spring break vacation as seen through the eyes of eleven-year-old Melanie. The author offers her readers a consistent, even tone throughout the book. Melanie's sometimes childish, sometimes teenage view of the world sets the stage for all that the Martin family experiences. From art museums to foreign cuisine, the author takes the reader with her wherever she goes. An additional plus to the book is that she phonetically spells the Spanish words that the fictitious Melanie learns. I found myself saying some of the words aloud and learning quite a few things along the way. An appendix of all the foreign words Ms. Weston used would have been an added benefit to the book. You can almost smell the musty old four-hundred year-old paintings and taste the fresh pescado in the various bars and outdoor restaurants in which Melanie and her clan dine. One of my favorite lines in the book comes in the section "Angel's apartment, incredibly late". The author writes: "Spaniards don't believe in bedtime. They believe in nighttime." The cultural differences are fascinating to the reader, made all the more real by Melanie's enthusiasm and joie de vivre. Luckily, Ms. Weston does not harp too long on the lovesick side of Melanie which could, to the adult reader, have become tiresome fairly quickly. Nonetheless, the reader is satisfied with the outcome of Melanie's relationship to the Spanish Migue who is 1 ½ years her senior. Readers will be relieved to know that they can read more about Melanie and Miguel in the fourth book in the series: Melanie in Manhattan. With Love From Spain, Melanie Martin will make you want to take your kids on a European adventure of your own, no matter where you live in the world! I highly recommend the book for its witty, yet educational quality. Christine Louise Hohlbaum, official SAHM expert for ClubMom, award-winning American writer and author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff (2003) and SAHM I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe (2005), lives near Munich, Germany with her husband and two children. Visit her Web site at http://www.DiaryofaMother.com.

With Love from Spain Melanie Martin is written by Carol Weston. The book is about Melanie Martin and her family's vacation; her mom Miranda and her dad Marc have some business in Spain so they bring their daughter Melanie and her son Matt with them. While they are there they make plans to see Miranda's old boy friend from Spain and his son Miguel, and Melanie meets Miguel's cousin. I like the book With Love from Spain Melanie Martin because it's about a girl I can relate to. For instance Melanie is ten and I'm ten; she's in fourth grade and I'm in fourth grade. She keeps a travel diary just like I do and we both travel a lot. I also like the book because Carol Weston includes interesting facts in the book. For example, Picasso painted the same painting many times in many different ways and they're all hanging up in a museum in Spain. I recommend the book for readers age 9 to 15. Ciao, [ch-ow] Carner Round

I used to hate reading. My mom would make me read every day. Then she bought me the Melanie Martin books. I can't put them down. I read them over and over again. I even started my own diary just like Melanie. If you have a little girl who hates to read like I used to then buy them the Melanie Martin books and they'll be totally hooked. Cya, Melanie a HUGE fan of Melanie Martin books!!!!!!!!!

I cannot tell you how much I love the Melanie Martin diaries! I read "The Diary Melanie Martin" in second grade! and it inspired me to start a diary of my own! Now I'm addicted to journals and own like sooo many!!! Then I told ALL of my friends about the book, I even got 5 boys to read it! Now they love Melanie, too! They're my favorite book in the entire PLANET and are amazing, educational, smart, laugh out loud, TERRIFIC novels!!! I have read the first book at least 10 times (no lie! I swear!), the second book 5 times, and I bought the 3rd book the minute I saw it!!! It is awesome!!! They are such wonderful stories for my friends and I to cherish and pass on to our kids, and their kids, and their kids, and their kids...

With Love from Spain, Melanie Martin, is my favorite Melanie yet, and I LOVED the first two! Melanie is now 11 and she goes to Spain for vacation and meets a really nice boy but then can't tell whether he likes her back. Her adventures at a bullfight and flamenco show and just eating Spanish food are so funny and I also learned a lot about Spanish painters and customs and words. You HAVE to read this diary! I totally recommend it! By the way, I love Carol Weston's column in GL, too. And I like her website: It's melaniemartin.com - I once wrote to her and she wrote back!Erica in Las VegasGREAT BOOK!! Five stars!