Blurb: When anxiety threatens to derail a homeschooled girl's attempt to make new friends, she finds support in an unlikely source . . . a herd of adorable alpacas!
To some kids, Amelia's life sounds like the ultimate fantasy. She and her brothers are homeschooled by their adventurous parents, and the family travels around the country in an RV, scaling mountains, rappelling down canyons, and skiing down double black diamond slopes. There's just one problem -- Amelia didn't inherit the family's daredevil gene. She's terrified of heights and would give anything to be reading instead of careening down a mountain. She's also desperate for the chance to attend a regular school and make real friends. So when her parents decide to temporarily move to Colorado, Amelia's delighted by the chance to settle down. However, starting at a conventional school is much harder than Amelia imagined, and her anxiety makes meeting new friends extra challenging. Everything about her feels wrong, from her clothes to her hobbies to her complete lack of pop culture knowledge. So when Amelia's given the chance to volunteer at an alpaca ranch, she's delighted by the chance to do something she's good at -- take care of animals. And soon, the alpacas and their owners start to feel like real friends. But when a cruel classmate's prank puts the alpacas in mortal peril, Amelia will have to summon strength she never knew she possessed to save the only place that's ever felt like home.
Review: The Amundsen family's life is a constant adventure, following thrilling exploits they pick out of the Adventure Jar. While everyone in Amelia's family seems to love it, she is not the daring time. In fact, Amelia thinks she is a coward always giving in to her fear and anxiety and ruining things for her family. So when the family makes an extended stop in a Colorado town, Amelia is excited to go to school and make friends, to do things a normal kid would. School bullies ruin her hopes there, but she finds solace when volunteering at an alpaca ranch. She finally feels like she has a place in the world, starting to make friends and have a home, when suddenly everything is in peril, and Amelia must get over her fear or lose it all.
This was a fantastic middle grade book that I read with my 11-year-old. Amelia is a realistic tween trying to deal with her anxiety and fears she is worthless and will never fit in. Things don't always go her way and she makes mistakes, but it is wonderful to see how she grows in the story. What's even better is that she doesn't magically become cured of her anxiety, it's still there. She just finds ways of coping with it. I liked how the story dealt with the issues of never feeling like you belong through Amelia and always feeling abandoned as seen in Cat. The parts with the alpacas are absolutely adorable. My son now wants to visit an alpaca ranch and learn even more about the animals. Also, you are never too old to enjoy riding a carousel!
I've been reading a lot of Wish novels with my son in the past year. While people might think they're light, fluffy, and only for girls by looking at the covers, they are a lot deeper than that. The stories are about real life tween concerns like anxiety, depression, bullying, divorce, death, grief, racism, and LGBTQ+ issues. The authors handle the matters immensely well. Problems don't magically go away, but they give the tweens coping tools. Actions have consequences. Most of the time, there are cute animals to help balance the heavy issues, and yes, sometimes there is a sweet romance subplot, but those don't distract from the heart of these books. My son and I have had many good talks about these issues because of reading these books together. You can find Alpaca My Bags here! You can find all the Wish Novels on the Scholastic site.
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