Though Amelia is running for secretary of the student government, she spends most of her time working on her friend Carly's presidential race. Carly mounts a solid campaign, aided by her friends' clever posters and handouts. But when the other strong candidate hands out candy in the hallways and spreads a slanted story about Carly, many are swayed. Like other books in the Amelia's Notebook series, this volume represents Amelia's journal with a first-person narrative and childlike ink-and-watercolor pictures. Moss combines an entertaining story with some useful lessons in interpreting the statements, promises, and half-truths of candidates in any election.

Two new "life in middle school" volumes in Amelia's signature hand-lettered, sketch- and marginalia-laden notebooks describe Amelia's anxiety over wearing makeup to a seventh-grade dance (7th-Grade) and outrage about an opponent's dirty tricks in a class election (Vote). Though Amelia's usually pitch-perfect voice slips into adult-speak when discussing social norms surrounding makeup, readers will find the unassuming series endearing as always.

Gr 4-7-Middle-schooler Amelia is running for student-body secretary while her friend Carly runs for president. The campaign is fierce and includes a bathrobe-wearing boy with a big idea to delay the school start time and another who hands out free candy for votes. The race turns ugly near the end, with half-truths and rumors affecting the final outcome. Amelia learns a lesson about how elections are unfortunately sometimes won and lost. Like the others in the series, this notebook is laced with entertaining commentary and clever cartoon illustrations. It's another winner in an already popular series and includes an important moral about modern life.-Kathleen Meulen, Blakely Elementary School, Bainbridge Island, WA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.