Sleepers, they’re not just for movies that fly under the radar. It’s summertime and just like the sleeper film that critics hadn’t heard of, it’s the literary sleeper for us, The Amelia Six. It’s like that expectations vs. reality meme that has your quarantine self-haircut envisioned as Kelly Kapowski, but it turns out to be more Joe Dirt. To be clear, in this case The Amelia Six was Tiffani Thiessen that actually looked like Kelly Kapowski.
The Amelia Six starts out of the gate with Millie being driven by her dad to the childhood home of Amelia Earhart. Millie is what her friends call her. For those on a birth certificate name basis it’s Amelia. Her dad and mom are divorced. She’s a pilot who lives somewhere (she doesn’t know where) and her dad is a kind soul who teaches CPR. Millie is on the way to meet five other tween girls who have won a STEM competition.
It’s a cold winter’s night in middle America and the snow is starting to pile up. Even though Millie is introverted she wouldn’t mind if her dad was sleeping in the same house. So when he drops her off it’s just her, her cube, five girls and a skeleton staff at the Earhart home. Each girl has a certain talent that probably swayed the judges of the competition. In her case she’s a world class Rubik’s Cube solver who can match all six sides in a matter of seconds.
The Amelia Six is layered with details and observations. Some of these random observations are meaningless, but many of them add up to clues as the book progresses. As I read the book I was paying attention, because it’s a book geared for middle school ages, I should be able to see through this quickly, right? I thought so too and what’s so surprising is that the book manages to keep its turns and plot twists just behind every corner, making each one seem as plausible as the last one.
As the night progresses the girls discover that someone has stolen Amelia Earhart’s original flight glasses. They were on the way to be displayed at the Smithsonian and are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Their theft is big money, as well as, big news on the collector’s circuit for whoever took them.
For us The Amelia Six played out like a real-time version of Knives Out, but with a Goonies-aged cast and just a hint of Scooby Doo mysteries. Just when I thought the book could’ve lost any credibility it didn’t. It managed to keep you thinking about the tiny Easter eggs or eccentricities that any character has without obsessing over them. The girl with the pet rat. The girl with the allergies. The chef with the typo in his tattoo. The housekeeper who can’t seem to dust properly, these are just a couple of the dozens of details that are in the book to keep you thinking.
This is a great book for those in upper elementary through middle school. The Amelia Six is also great for boys or girls, which is a rare thing for a book that’s almost made up entirely of female protagonists. As a dad to an avid 10 year old boy reader, I know what scent will make him lose literary lovely like nobody’s business. This book does not have that smell.
It’s a well written mystery book that is loads of fun for kids aged 9 and up. We’ll give this to our son and he’ll burn the pages as quickly as he can, more curious about how much of the story is real, than the fact that there are all girls in the book. And, regarding that last query, some of the book is real, while some of it isn’t. Author Kristin L. Gray has a page dedicated to the parts that seem too convenient to be true at the end. Readers will be thrilled to find out that the majority of the facts surrounding Earhart’s life are indeed true. There’s also an extended biography for those kids who’ll want to read more about her amazing life and accomplishments.
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