It's Justin Time, Amber Brown By Paula Danziger

illustrated by Tony Ross
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2001
$12.99 hardcover
48 pages

What a Trip, Amber Brown By Paula Danziger

illustrated by
Tony Ross
G. P. Putnam's Sons,2001
$12.99 hardcover
48 pages

Amber Brown is back! Sort of. Except she's 7 years old, not 9 . . . and her best friend Justin still lives next door . . . and her parents are still together. But she is undeniably Amber. Who else goes around referring to herself as "I, Amber Brown"?

Author Paula Danziger has re-invented her popular character, star of eight chapter books, for a whole new series of easy readers called "A Is for Amber." The first two books of the new series are It's Justin Time, Amber Brown and What a Trip, Amber Brown.

In It's Justin Time, Amber Brown, it's the day before her seventh birthday and Amber is one excited kid. Her party will be a cookout in the backyard with Justin and his family. Her Aunt Pam is visiting from California. And she's bound to get lots of good presents. What Amber wants most of all is a watch of her own. After all, she'll be 7 now, and you can be so much more grown-up when you don't have to ask someone else for the time.

Then in What a Trip, Amber Brown, the Browns (that's Amber's family) and the Danielses (that's Justin's) plan a two week vacation at a house in the Poconos. Or "Poke-a-nose," as Amber and Justin like to say, as they poke each other in the nose. And what a great place for a vacation it is! There's a tree house, and a tire swing, and swimming pool. They can even camp out in a tent.

Everything you've learned to love about Amber Brown - or will come to love - is here: Tony Ross's cartoonish illustrations (in full color this time), Amber's amusing narrative style, and Danziger's trademark appreciation for kid humor. Many of the jokes Amber and Justin exchange are classic schoolyard staples, but Danziger is also a master of a more private kind of joke that results from an individual's (in this case, hers and Amber's) ability to find humor in unexpected places. Word play and puns abound.

Even Danziger may not know for certain how the future books of this new series will turn out. At present she says she anticipates about ten books in the "A Is for Amber" series, taking Amber "from the summer before second grade to the summer before third grade." One of the things she is looking forward to most is writing about Amber's everyday adventures with Justin (Justin's family moved away at the end of the first Amber chapter book, Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon). Danziger also knows she wants to address the eventual divorce of Amber's parents, which we also know to expect from the first series.

It's Justin Time, Amber Brown and What a Trip, Amber Brown both fall into the slice-of-life, everyday adventure category. What a Trip, particularly, has little in the way of plot conflict, but a vacation is so exciting to a 7-year-old that Amber's excitement is enough to carry the story along. Even the ending works, because Amber knows (and we can tell) she is being silly when she closes, "I, Amber Brown, already know that there is no place like home. Now I, Amber Brown, know that there is no place like tent."

On the other hand, It's Justin Time, Amber Brown sets up a definite expectation of conflict, with Amber's hope for a watch for her birthday and her determination that Justin always be on time. Birthdays are always fraught with anticipation and once again Amber's enthusiasm is infectious. However, the story feels like it slams to a halt toward the end when Amber suddenly announces (to us readers, not the other characters) that she has learned that each person needs to keep his or her own time. Say what? It's a good observation, but what experience supposedly taught her that? Danziger immediately rallies with a pun and a prophecy when in the final sentence Amber declares: "Look out, world . . . it's time for both of us." Several more books' worth, I hope!

Amber's many fans will want to read this new series as well, and never mind that they are "too old" for easy readers. I say, go for it. The best audience, however, will be young readers discovering Amber for the first time. Imagine getting to grow up with her!

A Is for Amber - easy readers:

• It's Justin Time, Amber Brown. Putnam, 2001
• What a Trip, Amber Brown. Putnam, 2001

Amber Brown - the chapter books:

• Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon. Putnam, 1994
• You Can't Eat Your Chicken Pox, Amber Brown. Putnam, 1995
• Amber Brown Goes Fourth. Putnam, 1995
• Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit. Putnam, 1996
• Forever Amber Brown. Putnam, 1996
• Amber Brown Sees Red. Putnam, 1997
• Amber Brown Is Feeling Blue. Putnam, 1998
• I, Amber Brown. Putnam, 1999.

Dust jacket illustration by Tony Ross; used with permission of Penguin Putnam.

Reviewed by Wendy Morris. © 2001 by Wendy Morris

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