Happy New Year

It has been many years since I’ve stayed up late on December 31st. I think of that as the day we change the calendar. To me, as to many groups throughout history, the New Year comes in the Fall. A new calendar year feels the same as the day before.  A new school year is full of excitement, anticipation, a little anxiety and hope. Each new school year is like a journey into a new world; the curriculum stays more or less the same, but the kids make it an adventure. There are things I can’t control, and things I can.

It is the same in the wordless picture book  Journey by Aaron Becker.

A lonely girl picks up her red crayon, begins drawing on her bedroom wall and escapes to a world of enchantment. She begins simply at first, drawing a door, then boat, a balloon. When, after an act of courage,  she is captured by evil people, an act of friendship saves her and enables her to return home to find a true friend.

Each school year is like the arc of this story. We will begin tentatively tomorrow, take some risks, encounter some bums along the way, but will arrive at the end of the journey better people for having made it.

When Girls Bully

As I started reading Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina, I wracked by brain for another book about girl bullies but couldn’t come up with one. I could think of lots of non-fiction titles, but not a fiction title. I’m sure there are some out there. There are probably even good ones. But, if  the topic sounds even remotely interesting, you should read this one.

When Piddy & her Mom move, Piddy has to attend a new high school. She has always been a good student and want to become an elephant researcher when she grows up. One day, someone tells Piddy that Yaqui Delgado wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even know who Yaqui is or what reason she might have to dislike her enough to want to beat her up. At first she ignores the threat, and she certainly doesn’t want to be a narc, but thing begin to spin out of control.

What  I liked about the story is how real it felt. Piddy is pretty ordinary and I can believe that this situation might really have happened. Meg Medina loosely based the story on something that happened to her. Piddy is likable and you really feel for her as she tries to keep her world from falling apart.  So many times, a problem like this can’t be solved in a neat way and I appreciate the  honest and realistic ending.