Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods - by Ann Cameron (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Amanda Woods is discovering that there are some things in life you just can't change, like who your parents are or how your older sister treats you, but she is determined to change what she can. To begin with, she's not going to be just plain Amanda Woods (the girl her mother seems to think is just average). She's going to be Amanda K. Woods-someone who is proud and strong and sure of herself, someone who can have a French pen pal and a best friend of her own choosing, someone who finds four-leaf clovers and can get perfect scores on her math homework. There is more to Amanda than anyone else can see, things about her that Amanda herself doesn't even know yet, but she's finding out. In The Secret Life of Amanda K. Woods, her first novel for older children, Ann Cameron presents a heroine who is philosophical and honest as only a twelve-year-old can be.

Review Quotes

"Cameron paints a sensitive portrait of an 11-year-old loner in this story set in 1950s Wisconsin...[Amanda's] growing pains, gracefully conveyed though quiet, contemplative narrative, will hit home with many readers." --Publishers Weekly

"Cameron displays a virtuoso gift for precision, telling observations, and creative but unforced imagery." --Starred, Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

"Amanda K. Woods is a girl to like--she just doesn't know it yet. She's quirky, serious, impulsive, imaginative, perceptive, smart, and now, sharp...Amanda is the story, and she's as funny as she is wise." --Kirkus Reviews, pointer review

About the Author

ANN CAMERON is the author of many books for children, including The Stories Julian Tells, More Stories Julian Tells, The Stories Huey Tells, More Stories Huey Tells, and The Most Beautiful Place in the World. She grew up in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, graduated from Radcliffe College, and earned an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. She lives in Portland, Oregon.