Elana is thrilled to be living all the way up on the eighth floor of 514 Melon Hill Avenue, an apartment building in New York City. But with her new life come changes--and challenges. Is her shiny scooter up to the crags and potholes of city sidewalks? Will she be able to make new friends? Can she find a way to help out little Petey, who everyone says doesn't talk? And will the kids from Melon Hill win any blue ribbons at the Borough-Wide Field Day? As Elana coasts toward discoveries and surprises in her new home, she keeps one thing in mind: Anything can happen as long as you have a winning attitude and a cool set of wheels Elana Rose Rosen and her mother have just moved to a new apartment, and this is Elana's story about the event-filled summer that follows and the new neighbors and friends that become an important part of her life. "A pleasure to read....A story, told with tremendous inventiveness, of the satisfactions and intellectual excitements of childhood, of the worlds seen, explained and illustrated through the remarkable eyes of a remarkable girl."--New York Times Book Review.

Reviews

Gr 3-6-Elana Rose Rosen and her mother have just moved to an apartment in New York City. In short chapters, each one named by an illustrated acrostic (e.g., HOT, or ``How can we wait Out this night Till tomorrow?''), Elana relates her experiences while adjusting to new surroundings and making new friends. As in Beverly Cleary's ``Ramona'' books (Morrow) and Lois Lowry's ``Anastasia'' series (Houghton), it is not the plot that captures readers' attention, but rather the personalities and relationships of the characters. There is less obvious humor here than in the aforementioned books. Elana is witty, perceptive, introspective, and inventive, yet despite her sometimes precocious observations, she is never overly cute. This is a book filled with people. Williams expands the definition of family to include the whole community. Readers will sense, even from peripheral characters, that they all have full lives. The margins of the oversized pages are filled with pen-and-ink sketches that spring spontaneously from the text. The drawings, combined with decorated acrostics and type variations, give the book a lively, freewheeling appearance. Elana's absent and indifferent father and her young friend Petey's seriously ill mother are part of the background structure, while the children's focus is on the immediate joys and disappointments of everyday living.-Karen James, Louisville Free Public Library, KY

"A delightful character." -- "The Horn Book"An upbeat, innovative, delightfully engaging, and beautifully crafted first novel about everyday life in the inner city." (Pointer review)"-- Kirkus Reviews""A story, told with tremendous inventiveness, of the excitements of childhood, explained and illustrated through the remarkable eyes of a remarkable girl.""-- The New York Times Book Review"

In her latest work, Caldecott Honor artist Williams ( ``More, More, More,'' Said the Baby ; A Chair for My Mother ) strings together a series of short vignettes to form a bouncy novel about a girl's adjustment to her parents' divorce. Elana Rose Rosen and her mother relocate to an apartment in a big city housing project where ``Lanny'' spends the summer making friends and practicing her favorite scooter tricks. She meets a virtual smorgasbord of kids and kindly neighbors and forms a special attachment to a boy named Petey who doesn't speak. Elana blossoms in her new environment with only a minimum number of tantrums or sad thoughts about her now-fractured family. The end-of-summer--and end-of-novel--Borough-Wide Field Day provides occasion for all the characters to let their talents shine. Though the era in which Lanny's adventures take place is never specified, numerous details suggest a setting of a few decades ago; happily, the story's universal themes and situations never seem dated. Feisty Elana's forthright voice supercharges the first-person narrative. Inventive hand-lettered acrostics open each chapter of this oversize novel, and a smattering of recipes and black-and-white spot illustrations lend an air of childlike authenticity to the account. Williams announces her versatility with this satisfying project. Ages 8-up. (Oct.)