Welcome to Camden Falls (Main Street #1)

April 16, 2007
Martin launches her Main Street series with this appealing though somewhat sleepy tale, set in a small Massachusetts town. Eleven-year-old Flora and her younger sister, Ruby, whose parents died five months earlier in a car accident, come to live with their big-hearted grandmother, Min. Their new home is one of eight attached row houses, whose other residents include bright, brassy Olivia, who is Flora's age; an earnest teenage boy with Down syndrome; a pair of teenage sisters, one conscientious and kind, the other initially aloof and rebellious; and a patient, elderly man devoted to his wife, who suffers from dementia. Also playing supporting roles are a girl who lives in a run-down house on the edge of town, whose gruff, defensive veneer eventually cracks; and a mysterious older woman who does mending in Min's sewing store. A passionate needleworker, Flora relishes the hours she spends helping out and doing sewing projects in the shop. Readers may agree with Ruby—whose passion is dancing and singing—that time spent there is not all that lively. But Martin deftly reveals the novel's affecting underpinning—the girls' adjustment to their new life without their parents. Helping sensitive Flora with the transition is her discovery of her mother's diary and a box of old photos and letters, which helps her feel that indeed there "was a place for her in this room, in this house, in this town." The sisters begin school in their new town in Needle and Thread
, due in August. Ages 9-12.

July 9, 2007
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.