I have always enjoyed teaching quirky, no-traditional kids. I was sort of a quirky kid myself, so I like to think I have an affinity for them. They aren’t always easy and their lives aren’t always happy, but I love how they look at the world. Here are a few of the quirky characters I would love to teach:
1. Clementine, from the series by Sarah Pennypacker
2. Fred & George Weasley
3. Ferdinand the Bull
4. Alvin Ho
5. Olivia, from the series by Ian Falconer
6. Nicholas, from the series by Rene Goscinny
7. Anne Shirley
The newest one I’d add to my list is Danielle from OCD, The Dude, and Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn.
Danielle chronicles the highs and lows her senior year through her Me-moir, a collection of class assignments, journal entries, emails and letters to the school psychologist. She struggles with all the things high school students experience: unrequited love, body-image issues,insecurities about her social standing. And this lands her in the school psych’s office and, perish the thought, a social skills class in a church basement.
Fortunately, Danielle is surrounded by supportive adults, and she gets along with them far batter than she does with her peers. Her parents get her and are actively involved in her life. Her Aunt Joyce is the Aunt every kids wishes they had and her English teacher, who seems cold at first, really seems to understand and like her . Danielle even makes a friend of an eighty year old English tour guide. This is not a story where adults are absent, and that is part of the appeal of the book.
The book is funny, poignant and heart-breaking at times.
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