Welcome to Camden Falls (Main Street Series #1)

by Ann M. Martin, Ariadne Meyers (Read by)

Overview

Combining the heart of her Newbery Honor-winning fiction and the spirit of her legendary Baby-Sitters Club series, Ann M. Martin introduces a timeless new series for girls

Flora and Ruby do not want to move to Camden Falls. But they don't really have a choice -- their parents are dead and their grandmother, Min, is taking them in. It's strange to be in a new place. But luckily, it's a very welcoming place.
Min runs a sewing store, Needle & Thread, at the heart of Main Street in Camden Falls. There, Flora and Ruby become friends with Olivia, who likes to organize things, and Nikki, who lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Even if Flora and Ruby never expected it to, Camden Falls becomes their home...and its stories become a part of their stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545005234
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2007
Series:	Main Street Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Pages:	4
Product dimensions:	6.60(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Ann M. Martin's The Baby-Sitters Club series sold over 176 million copies and inspired a generation of young readers. Her novels include the Main Street series, BELLE TEAL, the Newbery Honor book A CORNER OF THE UNIVERSE, HERE TODAY, A DOG'S LIFE, and ON CHRISTMAS EVE, as well as the much-loved collaborations P.S, LONGER LETTER LATER and SNAIL MAIL NO MORE with Paula Danziger, and THE DOLL PEOPLE and THE MEANEST DOLL IN THE WORLD, written with Laura Godwin and illustrated by Brian Selznick. She lives in upstate New York.

Editorial Reviews

Meyers's honeyed, youthful voice gives Martin's latest, the first in the Main Street series for middle-graders, the easygoing pace one might expect from the series' title. Eleven-year-old Flora and her younger sister Ruby are orphaned when their parents are killed in a car accident. Five months after the tragedy, the siblings move with their grandmother Min to her home in the sleepy small town of Camden Falls, Mass. As the family grieves and adjusts to new circumstances-"getting their life back in order"-listeners are taken along to meet interesting friends and neighbors in Camden Falls. Kind-hearted Min co-owns a sewing shop, Needle and Thread, and lives in one of eight connected row houses in a historic building-all fodder for the sort of diverse community interactions, budding friendships and dramas that are the stuff of many of the author's popular works. Unfortunately, Meyers's characterizations are uneven, in contrast to her solid, straight narrative passages. Ruby's voice is too babyish and whiny, and the girls' energetic new pal Olivia is given an affected child characterization that is equally grating. Her takes on some of the older town residents, as well as a boy with Down Syndrome are slightly more successful. A bonus author interview, in which she discusses her characters, series and career is included. Ages 9-up. (June)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Sisters Ruby and Flora have only just begun to cope with the death of their parents. Now their grandmother Min is uprooting them from their familiar town and transplanting them to Camden Falls. Min lives in a row house and Ruby and Flora quickly get to know her neighbors on Main Street. Olivia, their next-door neighbor, is around Ruby and Flora's age and they become friends. It is harder to get to know Nikki, who comes from a poor family and is hesitant to trust anyone. While Main Street is very different from Ruby and Flora's home, they quickly befriend their neighbors, from Robby, a teenage boy with Down Syndrome, to an older woman who works with Min and whom many of the children fear. While the story is a bit slow at times, the relationships are varied and help Ruby and Flora realistically cope with the loss of their parents. This book launches Ann M. Martin's new series "Main Street."

Children's Literature - Amie Rose Rotruck

Join Flora and Ruby as they travel with their Grandmother Min to her Camden Falls row house. Meyers narrates this sweet but slow-paced story of two young sisters who reluctantly move in with their grandmother after they survive a car accident that takes their parents' lives. After their seemingly endless road trip, Flora and Ruby reconnect with familiar friends and neighbors. By the story's end, Flora and Ruby have learned such invaluable lessons as compromise, compassion, cooperation, empathy, forgiveness, good work ethics, and acceptance. This delightful unabridged audio book, the first installment in the "Main Street" series, is available on four compact discs. Interestingly, although Martin's characters are diverse with respect to race, age, gender, mental health, and socio-economic status, Meyers lends her voice to every character. Her narration, albeit challenging due to the large cast of characters, pales in comparison to the high-quality performances by voice actors on audio books published by Full Cast Audio. Nonetheless, this recording is worth the listener's time and cash. An exclusive interview with Martin is included. Reviewer: Mary Jo Edwards

Children's Literature - Mary Jo Edwards

Orphans Flora and Ruby are moving in with Min, their maternal grandmother. Min lives in 350-year-old Camden Falls, Mass., a town filled with all sorts of people who are ready to embrace the girls. Min's friendly sewing-and-needlepoint shop is the heart of the girls' new world. Camden Falls, with its row houses, quirky characters and strong, level-headed women is almost a character itself. For such a small town, there is a dizzying array of folks: an older boy with Down's Syndrome, an abused girl, a woman with Alzheimer's, a forgetful elderly black man, a shoplifter, a cranky shop owner and a girl who lives with her widowed father. Girls who have outgrown Cynthia Rylant's Cobble Street Cousins will find the same familiar sense of community here, and they will forgive the saccharine tone, especially when the narrator slips into the second-person voice. They will long to know how the girls fare in fourth and sixth grade and will be able to find out soon: The second in the series arrives in August just in time for school. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews