The Middle School Years in Words and Pictures
Traditional Narrative Upended
Joy Fleishhacker, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 12/13/2007
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Middle school can be a time of anxiety and uncertainty as students leave behind the comforts of elementary school and take their first steps toward adulthood. From the mundane to the multifaceted, there are new challenges to face—remembering locker combinations, switching classrooms and teachers, navigating lunchroom mores, and re-evaluating old friendships and forging new ones. This is also a time of self-discovery and transformation as kids wrestle with questions of conscience, learn to accept responsibility for their decisions, identify new interests, contemplate their image (both interior and exterior), and begin to determine exactly who they want to become.
By combining words and visual images, the following books take an imaginative and approachable look at these issues. The authors employ an enticing variety of narrative styles, including journaling, correspondence, and poetry, and the writing is informal and chatty. Eye-catching layouts and first-person perspectives invite readers to explore each protagonist’s experiences, concerns, and revelations. The artwork amplifies the text, adding detail, insight, and often humor, demonstrating that there are many methods of self-exploration and self-expression.
Because of their format, these titles can be quickly consumed and digested; however, the themes they highlight will resonate with middle schoolers and perhaps reduce feelings of isolation. Use them to launch classroom discussions, or to help students key into personal creativity and self-expression through journaling, poetry writing, and art-filled storytelling. These accessible books will also appeal to older elementary students itching to read about the mysteries of middle school.
Diaries and Doodles
Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007) blends deadpan first-person commentary with droll black-ink cartoons to relate the thoughts and experiences of a reluctant diarist (“this was MOM’s idea, not mine”). Greg Heffley’s seemingly ordinary entries convincingly describe the ins and outs of 7th grade, including his (usually ineffective) efforts to improve his popularity “rank;” the mental and physical rigors of a PE wrestling unit; well-meaning (but clueless) parents; (suddenly too nerdy) best pal Rowley; and his (often uphill) struggle to do the right thing. Greg’s voice rings true and the cartoons wonderfully embellish the text’s laugh-out-loud humor. The fun continues in an equally hilarious sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (available February 2008, both Abrams/Amulet).
In Amelia’s 6th-Grade Notebook (2005), Marissa Moss’s likable protagonist confides her thoughts in a colorfully illustrated hand-lettered journal. Amelia is excited to take on middle school, although she sometimes feels that she’s “closer to 6 than 16.” Despite difficulties (an ill-tempered English teacher, feeling intimidated by the “oh-so-cool” kids, ugly PE uniforms) she eventually learns to see herself and others more clearly and finds solutions to her problems. Amelia’s 7th-Grade Notebook (2007, both S & S/Atheneum) describes her first school dance, changing friendships (her best pal thinks she’s a baby), concerns about appearances (including the make-up dilemma), and defining her self-image. In both books, Amelia shares her experiences with honesty and intimacy, and her comical musings and doodles keep the tone light. Interested readers can seek out other entries in the series, which began with Amelia’s Notebook (S & S, 2006).
A Miscellany of Memories
Jennifer L. Holm’s Middle School Is Worse than Meatloaf: A Year Told through Stuff (S & S/Atheneum, 2007) combines small snippets of day-to-day life (journal entries, greeting cards, refrigerator notes, newspaper clippings, IMs, report cards, etc.) to re-create Ginny Davis’s 7th-grade experience. She begins the year with high hopes and high grades, but personal problems (adjusting to a new stepfather, worries about a troubled older sibling) soon derail her efforts at school and at home. With the help of family and friends, a newfound interest in art, and an unexpected date to the Spring Fling, things seem to be smoothing out…just in time for summer. Holm cleverly cobbles together coherent, easy-to-follow formats and storylines, creating a collage portrait of a sympathetic and believable character. Elicia Castaldi’s realistic illustrations make the scrapbook-like pages interesting and compelling.
Poetry and Pictures
Like candies sampled from an assorted box, poems can provide satisfying tastes of middle school life, each with a unique flavor. In Swimming Upstream: Middle School Poems (Clarion, 2002), Kristine O’Connnell George fashions simple language into delectable word images that vividly portray one girl’s school year, as confusion, nervousness, and self-doubt are gradually supplanted by confidence, enthusiasm, and a sense of proud accomplishment. Funny tidbits about commonplace trials (a stubborn locker, flute practice frustrations, boring lunchtime fare) are balanced with chewier selections that explore deeper concerns (identity, school assignment stresses, a first crush). Interspersed with Debbie Tilley’s amusing pen-and-ink renderings of school scenes, the brief, rhythmic poems are easy-to-comprehend, relevant, thought-provoking, and ideal for classroom sharing.
Stretch your students’ assumptions about verse-writing with John Grandits’s Blue Lipstick (Clarion, 2007), a collection of concrete poems that synthesizes words and images into eloquent and revealing snapshots of a ninth-grader. In a vivacious and searingly honest voice, Jessie expresses her witty—often-irreverent—opinions about school life, ruminates about her relationships with friends and family, and relates her search for her “signature style.” The artfully designed layout arranges words and graphic illustrations to echo and enhance each poem’s content. From “Bad Hair Day” (frizzled lines of free verse spring from a stylized head) to “Pep Rally” (stick-figure cheerleaders are constructed from words and shapes) to “Allergic to Time” (the text fills an hourglass outline), this funny and perceptive book will grab readers…even those allergic to poetry.
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