Happy Poetry Friday Birthday, Daughter J!

It’s NinjaGirl’s birthday today. She is nine. Nine!

The lucky girl shares a birthday with Joe Flacco, Baltimore Ravens QB. She could care less. The rest of Baltimore (including her sports-radio addicted mother) is "Wacko for Flacco" as we battle Sunday with the Pittsburgh Steelers for a Superbowl spot.

Her birthday has me thinking about relationships, siblings in particular. I was fussing about in the kitchen one day a few years ago and looked up to see our son (3 years older) and daughter playing in the next room. Something about their play stopped me. I stepped into the room and said, “Do you realize that you’re best friends?” Their response: “Uh, Mom, we know that.” Laughter about Mom’s “duh” moment. Back to playing. I’ve fictionalized their friendship in a free-verse picture book, The Waiting Flower. It’s been at a small publisher, Flashlight Press, for one year! Any minute now, I’ll hear my phone ringing (my year-long mantra). While I’m waiting, a poem about friendship: The Arrow and the Song By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For who has sight so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of song? Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke; And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend. I love how the stiff arrow is found unchanged. Our locked-in views and ways of thinking leave no room for conversation. The more fluid song is welcoming. Once it’s in the friend’s heart the song becomes something new. I’m tired of the media – TV and children’s books – going for the easy stereotype of embattled siblings. Love the Arthur series on PBS, hate the way they portray Arthur and DW’s relationship. Loved Meg Cabot’s first Allie Finkle book (read a Q&A about the book with Meg Cabot), but Allie and her younger bros never get beyond annoying one another.

The truth about siblings is much more complicated and often more positive. Anyone know of some books where the sibs actually get along? Why not show kids the behavior we aim for, rather than go for the easy stereotype? FYI – One of my favorite parenting books, tops on raising sibs, is Siblings Without Rivalry by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish. Come back for a writing exercise on siblings tomorrow…

Meanwhile, check at Big A, Little A for this week's Poetry Friday host.

Oh -- it's Karen Edmisten!

Amok in Middle School: Mining for Details

My middle schooler today -- a crazy 'tween. Same kid in 2006 (first day of school) -- maybe he hasn't changed that much.

Middle school is the educational equivalent of Dante’s Purgatory. Walk into a middle school, and you’ll see why kids this age are called ‘tweens. They are between dependence on adults and the independence of high school. They have the unruly, boisterous bodies of elementary schoolers, but look like young adults. They waiver between self-restraint and craziness. Middle school hallways are wild. That’s the world my 11-year-old now navigates every day. Because I’m a mother and a middle-grade author, I’ve been mining his experience (with permission) for future use. Here are some details about his first week. Feel free to borrow with embellishments. His top 10, “What I’ll remember about my first week of middle school” list is: 10. Friends: kids my son knows from sports, even his preschool playgroup, are now his classmates.

9. Colorful APs: the assistant principal proudly told us that she’s fond of wearing bright, clashing colors. Like the hot pink suit and day-glo orange nail polish she had on at orientation.

8. Lockers: cramming between people at break time makes life at middle school feel hectic.

7. Décor: the geography teacher decorates his room with European football team scarves. Cool!

6. P.E.: boys and girls have different locker rooms. Who knew?

5. More lockers: the craziest “pimp my locker” item he’s seen is a door covered in happy-birthday wrapping paper. I spotted a mini disco-ball.

4. Supplies: the required $100 graphing calculators have not been used in class yet, but they are seeing a lot of action at lunch (they come loaded with games).

3. Quirky teachers: the reading teacher was in the military and enjoyed telling the class that she’s licensed to use a hand grenade and an M-16. She also has pet rats. Scary? Nope. She’s one of the nicest teachers, according to my son.

2. Just plain weird: there is a pink plastic letter K stuck to the ceiling of the band room. No one knows how it got there.

1. And the number one, most exciting thing about middle school…the cafeteria cash register.

I couldn't make this stuff up. I doubt anyone could. But these are the kinds of details that make children's novels great reads. Some “new kid at school” books: the latest Allie Finkle (MG), by Meg Cabot (I haven’t read it yet, but my daughter and I loved the first); the Chocolate War (YA), by Robert Cormier; Looking for Alaska (YA), John Green; for younger readers -- the first Junie B. Jones book.