Dear Diary, You will never in a million years guess where I'm going....Italy! In Europe!! Across the ocean!!! I even have a passport. It's really cool, except I'm squinting my eyes in the photo, so I look like a dork. At least that's what my brother said. I call him Matt the Brat. You would too. Trust me.... When Melanie Martin heads to Italy on a family vacation with her art-obsessed mom, her grumpy dad, and her little brother, she has no idea what she's in for. As she discovers Michelangelo, Italian ice cream, and poetry, she also realizes how much her family means to her. Maybe she won't trade them in after all. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In Girls' Life advice columnist Weston's (Girltalk; For Girls Only) humorous first novel, 10-year-old New Yorker Melanie Martin tells the story of her family vacation to Italy. Through journal entries, Melanie, a likable, believable fifth-grader, describes everything from her relationship with her parents and six-year-old brother, "Matt the Brat," to Italian Renaissance artists' proclivity for nudes. After touring museum after museum with her mother, an avid art-history teacher, Melanie writes, "I think Italy is full of miracles. I also think Italy is rated R. Which I can handle. But maybe Mom and Dad should have left Matt at home with a baby-sitter." Weston clearly knows a 10-year-old's take on foreign customs: after the heroine observes Italian laundry flapping on clotheslines, she writes, "Well, if your panties were flapping in the wind, would you want your neighbors to see holes in them? I think that's why Italians need so much new underwear and so many underwear shops." The entries, which range from the everyday observations about desperately needing to go to the bathroom on the plane to the more dramatic, such as meeting her father's ex-girlfriend, are peppered with Melanie's quirky rhymes and handwritten jottings that reflect her moods. Weston effectively proves that perhaps travel's greatest gift is a reinvigorated perspective on life at home. Ages 8-10. (May) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 3-6-Ten-year-old Melanie Martin and her family are going to Italy for spring break. Her diary begins shortly before their European adventures start, and continues as they travel across Italy and back home again. As on many family vacations, the two kids fight, the parents argue, pickpockets strike, children go missing, new things are tried, but, ultimately, everyone has a memorable trip. Melanie's diary has an authentic ring: she grumbles about her brother, her parents complain that she is a grump, but by journal's end she has gained a maturity that often accompanies a trip abroad. Sections of the book are laugh-out-loud funny and Weston's descriptions will have readers wanting to see the country for themselves. An enjoyable read.-Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 4-6. In the same direct, unaffected voice she used in her nonfiction book Private and Personal (reviewed on p.1664), the advice columnist of Girl's Life magazine creates Melanie, a fictional 10-year-old, who is going on a vacation to Italy with her parents and her kid brother, Matt. It's a smooth, authentic-sounding journey, with Melanie presenting the ups and downs in her diary, complete with decorative squiggles on the pages. She gets jet lag on arrival and yucky Parmesan cheese on her food, but she burbles about the game she plays with Matt in the museum ("Point out the Naked People"), is terrified when she tells Matt to get lost (and he does), and survives pickpockets and stitches in her eyebrow. She also learns some Italian, sees Michelangelo's David in Florence, and meets an old girlfriend of Dad's. Her words clearly explain how it feels to take a plane, stay in hotels, and be a tourist in a place very different from home. Pair this with the enchanting, gorgeously illustrated Vendela in Venice (1999) to give young would-be travelers a taste of la dolce vita. (Reviewed May 1, 2000)0375805095GraceAnne A. DeCandido From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.