12 copies

The story begins with a young girl named Amelia extolled her hatred for all manner of roads. Quickly we discover that Amelia's family are migrant workers, and she resents the constant travel and moving necessitated by her family's need to move for work. Amelia has to get up and pick apples for three hours before school starts. Unlike previous years, this year Amelia's teacher takes steps to make sure she is included in the class. After school, Amelia discovers an "accidental" road, more of an overgrown footpath, that leads her to a large tree. Following her personal road each day, she sits beneath the tree, a rare representation of permanence in her life. However, the end of the harvest nears and Amelia begins to dread the impending move. Amelia comes to the solution of creating an "Amelia box" full of things that she identified with, and buried it at the old tree like a time capsule. Now that she had a place to call her own, Amelia didn't dread moving so much anymore. Many more children than specifically the children of migrant workers are going to be able to identify with this book, particularly military children, but really any kids that have had to make significant moves in their lives. The sense of belonging and security is something universally experienced and desired, so we can all find some part of ourselves in Amelia. On the surface level, this book can also introduce the concept of migrant workers to school-age children, and in some schools, help normalize the population of migrant children to other students unfamiliar with the practice. ( )

This is a book about a little girl named Amelia who is a migrant farmer's daughter. Every harvest her family moves from town to town to follow the money. Amelia cries every time they move. She yearns for stability. With the recognition from a teacher, Amelia finally finds a place she feels she belongs. It is not long until the have to move from this place, but this time she doesn't cry. She found her sense of belonging and plans on returning one day. I think the important theme in this book is even in a temporary situation you can still find a sense of belonging. ( )

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I liked Amelia's Road very much. Two of the reasons why I liked this book are that is pushes the reader, and the illustrations. This book pushes the reader in the essence of pushing the reader to empathize with how Amelia feels. Amelia feels sad that she has to move again when she begins to feel like she fits in where they had just moved to pick apples. She begins making friends and likes her class and then discovers that she has to move, yet again. She feels like she has no place that holds sentiment as home to her and reading about this pushes the reader to empathize how she feels trying to find a place she can call "home." The illustrations assisted in pushing the reader to empathize towards Amelia. The illustrations kept showing "Amelia's Road" and the tree that lied upon it. This illustration enforced that this place was Amelia's special place as she called it and then showed her digging the hole to place various momentos she held special to her. The message of this story was that a person doesn't necessarily need a location to have a feeling of home. A person can hold onto momentos and memories of their life and hold those as a reminder of their "home." ( )