History Literature / AmberBrown

** Danziger was a fan of children's literature in general and regularly name-dropped other titles in the books. In the ''A is for Amber'' book ''Orange You Glad It's Halloween, Amber Brown?'', Amber's best friend Justin dresses a pumpkin in underpants and calls it "Literature/CaptainUnderpants." Amber also has a cousin named Lily who has a [[http://www.amazon.com/Lillys-Purple-Plastic-Purse-Henkes/dp/0688128971/ purple plastic purse]].

* RaceLift: In the books, Amber is Caucausian. In the Apple TV series, Amber is half white on her mother's side and half black on her father's side.

* AgeLift: In the books, Amber was in fourth grade. In the series, she's a middle school student

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

In September 2021, it was announced that the franchise had been picked up as a television series for Creator/AppleTVPlus. The series was described as "an unfiltered look at a girl finding her own voice through art and music in the wake of her parents' divorce." The show premiered on July 29, 2022.

In September 2021, it was announced that the franchise had been picked up as a television series for Creator/AppleTVPlus. The series is said to be "an unfiltered look at a girl finding her own voice through art and music in the wake of her parents' divorce." The show is set to premiere on July 29, 2022.

In September 2021, it was announced that the franchise had been picked up as a television series for Creator/AppleTVPlus. The series is said to be "an unfiltered look at a girl finding her own voice through art and music in the wake of her parents' divorce."

''Amber Brown'' is a series of realistic fiction children's books written by Paula Danziger (author of ''The Cat Ate My Gymsuit'' and ''Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice?''). Early editions are illustrated by Tony Ross, while later editions are illustrated by Anthony Lewis.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In ''Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit,'' while baking brownies with her mother and Max, Amber says they should turn on the oven and "do some pre-heating." This causes Amber's mother and Max to laugh, but when Amber asks what for, she's told that it's a private joke. This causes her to rage to herself about this sort of adult hypocrisy, as whenever kids tell a joke that they want to keep private, they're made to tell it to the class anyways or risk getting detention.

* SilentTreatment: In ''What a Trip, Amber Brown'', Amber Brown subjects her best friend, Justin, to this after he splashes her in the pool and causes her to get water up her nose. She eventually forgives him.

* HiddenDepths: Throughout most of the series, Amber dismisses the possibility of ever being friends with a classmate of hers named Fredrich Allen because he picks his nose and chews the boogers, and she doesn't think she could ever be friends with someone who does that. In ''Amber Brown Is Tickled Pink'', however, she meets him at his father's farm and comes to realize pretty quickly that the picking and eating is just a bad nervous habit, rather like how she sometimes chews on her hair or her nails, and learns that Fredrich is actually a pretty nice boy. After this, she becomes very annoyed with her other friends when they tease him behind his back, just like she used to do with them, only now she feels guilty about it.
* HoldTheUnsolicitedIngredient: In ''Amber Brown Is Not a Crayon'', this is a RunningGag between Amber and Justin. They always ask for a pizza, "hold the anchovies," and then laugh at the mental image of the pizza boy holding an armful of anchovies. This recurs in all future books where she either visits him or he visits her.
* HopeIsScary: In ''Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit'', Amber is worried about letting her mother's new boyfriend, Max, into her life, because she fears that if she comes to like him, she'll just be upset in a few months when he leaves like her father did.

* MaliciousMisnaming: Sometimes some kids tease Amber by calling her color names other than "Amber" or "Brown."
* MidlifeCrisisCar: In the latter books, Amber's father drives around a very fancy sports car that Amber's mother refers to as "your father's middle-aged-man-starting-over car." In ''Amber Brown Horses Around'', it's revealed that it's a red sports car that he calls his Hot Tamale, though Amber's mother is now calling it the "Midlife Folly" as a snarky rhyme.

* {{Prequel}}: The ''A is for Amber'' books featured rather younger versions of Amber and Justin, before Justin moved away and Amber's parents got divorced.
* ShoutOut: One of Amber's friends has a sheepdog named [[Film/ANewHope Darth Vader]].
** Danziger was a fan of children's literature in general and regularly name-dropped other titles in these books. In the ''A is for Amber'' book ''Orange You Glad It's Halloween, Amber Brown?'', Amber's best friend Justin dresses a pumpkin in underpants and calls it "Literature/CaptainUnderpants." Amber has a cousin named Lily who has a [[http://www.amazon.com/Lillys-Purple-Plastic-Purse-Henkes/dp/0688128971/ purple plastic purse]]. In one of the books in the original series, Amber's teacher reads Pam Munoz Ryan and Brian Selznick's ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Amelia-And-Eleanor-For-Ride/dp/059096075X/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1414078286&sr=8-13&keywords=brian+selznick Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride]]'' to her class.
* SilentTreatment: In ''What a Trip, Amber Brown'', Amber Brown subjects her best friend Justin Daniels to this after he splashes her in the pool and otherwise gets on her nerves, but he soon manages to get her to forgive him.
* SliceOfLife: It's the day-to-day adventures of a young girl who goes to school and has to deal with family, friend and general life problems.
* SuckECheeses: In ''Forever Amber Brown'', Justin and Amber visit Say Cheese. Although they do offer very cheesy pizza, which Amber and Justin get and enjoy, they also offer pretty much anything else with cheese you can think of; burritos, cheesecakes, Cheese Doodles, dumplings, etc. It's a Type 2 example-- the food is good, the games are high-tech and fun, and there are displays where kids can have their pictures taken and pretend to be in various scenes, like aliens in space.
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Averted. After Amber's father breaks a major promise to her and she justifiably gets very upset and angry, he starts taking lessons from a counselor on how to be a better parent. They seem to work.

* YoureNotMyFather: In ''Amber Brown is On the Move'', the title character shouts this after her new stepfather, Max, gets on her case about not packing the stuff in her room for their upcoming move to their new house. She's upset at herself, as she normally likes Max reasonably well, and it causes her to realize that she needs some help from her friends.

* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Amber can sometimes be easily distracted. She has to go for special classes because she has trouble concentrating to take standardized tests.
* AuthorAppeal: In the ''A is for Amber'' books, Amber's best friend Justin declares that first grade is the "year of the ChickenJoke" and tells only chicken jokes the whole year. In a bonus feature included in ''Amber Grown is Green With Envy'' (one of the books from the main series), "Things you should know about Paula Danziger," Danziger states "I love chicken jokes."
* BegoneBribe: ''Amber Brown is Green With Envy'' combines both the AnnoyingYoungerSibling and the DreadfulMusician variants. Dylan gets his father, his sisters and Amber, their friend, to pay him to ''not'' play the accordion around them. His father gives him five dollars, Amber gives him a dollar, Savannah fifty cents and Polly a $1.50. However, shortly after this it's discovered that he ruined one of Polly's dolls and he has to give her everything he just got, plus seven dollars on top of it.

* CensorshipBySpelling: Commented on by Amber Brown in ''Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit'', in comparison to adults telling private jokes to each other, something she feels isn't fair because when kids tell jokes that they want to be private in school, the teacher makes them tell them out loud to the entire class, or gives them detention if they don't.
* CordonBleughChef: Amber Brown's favorite Amber-sitter, Brenda, is this. She once made Amber a meat loaf with a hard-boiled egg in it. Another time, she told Amber of her Velveeta whipped potatoes and spaghetti diablo, but fortunately they already had pizza on the way.
* DeliberatelyCuteChild: Amber in the ''A is for Amber'' books.
* DivorceIsTemporary: Amber keeps hoping it's true, but eventually has to come to terms with the fact that isn't.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In ''Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit'', Amber comments "Come on, everyone, let's turn on the oven and do some pre-heating." This causes Amber's mother and her boyfriend Max to laugh, but when Amber asks what for, she's told that it's a private joke. This causes her to rage to herself about this sort of adult hypocrisy, as whenever kids tell a joke that they want to keep private, they're made to tell anyway, asked "... would you like to share that with the rest of the class?" and if they don't, they get detention.'
* GirlishPigtails: Amber sports these in the ''A is for Amber'' books as a means of enhancing her cute child look.
** She also sports them in a couple of the earlier books until she gets her hair cut in "Amber Brown Sees Red."

** Expanded [[spoiler: and mildly averted]] upon in ''Amber Brown Horses Around,'' where Amber and Hannah end up attending the same riding camp and are forced to share a tent with several other girls. Amber gets to fed up with Hannah's mean behavior and [[spoiler: supposed]] pranks at her expense that she teams up with the other girls to plan an elaborate prank on Hannah in return. This backfires when [[spoiler: Hannah falls and twists her ankle while running from the prank]], and it also transpires that [[spoiler: that Hannah was ''not'' responsible for the pranks that Amber thought she was]]. Feeling guilty after this incident, Amber [[spoiler: decides to start making an effort to be nicer to Hannah, a sentiment which she returns.]] In order to keep things harmonious at camp, the two decide to start making an effort to try not to be so mean to each other and take the time to think about how their behaviors and words effect each other and it seems at the end of the story that even if they could never be friends, they could possibly at least reach the point of becoming frenemies.
* AmicableExes: For the most part, throughout the series, Amber Brown's parents are ''not'' this. However, by the end of ''Amber Brown is Horsing Around'', they seem to be moving towards it, if only because they've both come to realize their childish bickering and bad-mouthing each other hasn't been good for Amber.

Danziger passed away in 2004, resulting in the end of the original series. However, in 2012, the series was revived again by Creator/BruceCoville and Elizabeth Levy, whom Danziger described as "her best friend and her other best friend." Their first installment, ''Amber Brown is Tickled Pink," was released in September of that year, while their latest installment, ''Amber Brown Horses Around'', was released on September 11, 2014.

* AccidentalMisnaming: In ''Amber Brown Is On the Move'', Amber's dance teacher (and later her Dad's girlfriend), Miss Isobel, is bad at remembering names and keeps calling her a different gem every time she sees her - "opal," "topaz," etc. Eventually, she remembers her names, but still calls her other gem names as a friendly joke. It's also never made entirely clear whether she actually knew Amber's name from the start and was joking the entire time.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: In ''Amber Brown Is Tickled Pink'', Amber, her mother and her stepfather to be visit Camp Sukkatukket, a camp owned by the father of one of Amber's classmates, Fredrich Allen. When Fredrich spots them, he drops a hammer that he was using to repair the cabin porch out of shock and then starts hopping up and down. He dropped it because he wasn't expecting Amber and her family there and the two of them aren't even friends at the time. (Though they become friends during the visit.)
* AlphaBitch: Hannah Burton. Generally regarded as the prettiest girl in Amber's class, she seems to dislike Amber for no good reason (though possibly simply because she finds her silly). She takes every opportunity to tease her and otherwise make snide comments at her and is generally just thoroughly unpleasant even though Amber has never really done anything to her at all, other than sometimes complain about her to her friends and parents ''because'' of the things she's done. It all comes to a head in ''Amber Brown Horses Around'' when the two are forced to share a tent with several other girls at summer camp. Amber gets so tired of Hannah's mean behavior and apparent pranks that she teams with the other girls to plan an elaborate prank of her own, which blows up terribly when Hannah twists her ankle after trying to run when hearing a spooky voice on a tape played as part of the prank. After this, it transpires that Hannah was ''not'' responsible for the pranks that Amber thought she was, though everyone still agrees that Hannah has been awful to Amber ever since they got to camp. In order to keep things harmonious at camp, the two decide to start making an effort to try not to be so mean to each other and take the time to think about how their behaviors and words effect each other and it seems at the end of the story that even if they could never be friends, they could possibly at least reach the point of becoming frenemies.

''Amber Brown'' is a series of books written by Paula Danziger (''The Cat Ate My Gymsuit'', ''Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice?'', etc.) and illustrated by Tony Ross. Realistic fiction, the books focused on the adventures of the titular character, Amber Brown, who had to deal with some tough real-life problems such as the divorce of her parents and her best friend moving away. Despite the often serious nature of the material, the books contained a fair amount of humor and a generally optimistic tone. Amber was also featured in ''A is for Amber'', a series of early-reader picture books presenting the adventures of the young Amber before her parents got divorced and before her friend Justin moved away.

Danziger passed away in 2004, resulting in the series ending on a cliffhanger, with Amber's mother about to get re-married. The series would see a revival in 2012, when Creator/BruceCoville and Elizabeth Levy, whom Danziger described as a her two best friends, began writing new books in the series. The latest installment, ''Amber Brown Horses Around'', was released on September 11, 2014.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: In ''Amber Brown Wants Extra Credit'', Amber comments "Come on, everyone, let's turn on the oven and do some pre-heating." This causes Amber's mother and her boyfriend Max to laugh, but when Amber asks what for, she's told that it's a private joke. This causes her to rage to herself about this sort of adult hypocrisy, as whenever kids tell a joke that they want to keep private, they're made to tell anyway, asked "... would you like to share that with the rest of the class?" and if they don't, they get detention.

'''''Amber Brown''''' is a series of books written by Paula Danziger (''The Cat Ate My Gymsuit'', ''Can You Sue Your Parents for Malpractice?'', etc.) and illustrated by Tony Ross. Realistic fiction, the books focused on the adventures of the titular character, Amber Brown, who had to deal with some tough real-life problems such as the divorce of her parents and her best friend moving away. Despite the often serious nature of the material, the books contained a fair amount of humor and a generally optimistic tone. Amber was also featured in ''A is for Amber'', a series of early-reader picture books presenting the adventures of the young Amber before her parents got divorced and before her friend Justin moved away.

* AuthorAppeal: In the ''A is for Amber'' books, Amber's best friend Justin declares that first grade is the "year of the chicken joke" and tells only chicken jokes the whole year. In a bonus feature included in ''Amber Grown is Green With Envy'' (one of the books from the main series), "Things you should know about Paula Danziger," Danziger states "I love chicken jokes."