Lights, Camera, Amalee by Dar WilliamsScholastic, 2006

Amalee, who has just finished seventh grade, meets a grandmother she didn’t know she had, inherits a very large champagne bottle full of coins from said grandmother, and uses her inheritance to make a short documentary about endangered species. For her movie, Amalee interviews a cast of characters ranging from the “tai chi people” who practice by the roadside to scientists at the Boston Aquarium and the American Museum of Natural History, and, with the help of her friends and family, the film comes together beautifully. This book is full of really good details that made me grin: I loved the description of the Boston Aquarium’s penguins and spiraling ramps and huge ocean tank, and I loved the way that when Amalee and one of her dad’s friends come to the city by train, Dar includes a bit about them getting off at Grand Central and looking at the constellations on the ceiling, transferring to the shuttle, and then taking the C train uptown to the AMNH stop, where, of course, Amalee loves the animal mosaics decorating the station. And, too, I liked the book’s message: notice things, don’t be dismissive, and marvel at/be a part of “the everythingness of everything.”