EMMA-JEAN LAZARUS FELL OUT OF A TREE (FICTION)
FICTION
EMMA-JEAN LAZARUS FELL OUT OF A TREE by Lauren Tarshis (Dial)
An unusual surge of energy came over Emma-Jean, very possibly a
thrill, as she took a step toward Colleen. She had the feeling of
walking through an invisible door, the door that had always seemed to
separate her from her fellow seventh graders.
Surprisingly, the door was wide open.
Emma-Jean Lazarus approaches her 7th grade class with the distant,
bemused air of a cultural anthropologist, and years of careful
observation have culminated in a confidence that she can solve her
cohorts' condundrums, whether they be botched invitations, false
accusations by teachers, or grown-ups who fall in love when it is
clearly not a good idea. Unfortunately, Emma-Jean's methodology for
problem-solving generally involves forgery, and she manages to
complicate things more often than not.
The true beauty of this first novel is the deep compassion for
outsider Emma-Jean, who takes pride in being "strange" (dictionary
definition: extraordinary, remarkable, singular), who rationalizes the
world according to the theories of Jules Henri Poincar� (a
mathematician held in high esteem by her deceased father), and manages
to have a real affection for her classmates despite the lack of
inclusion in their circles. There is also strong attention given to
other characters: the grown-ups are flawed but appropriately involved
and refreshingly likable; the boys are often oblivious to machinations
for and against them ("Perhaps there was more to Will Keeler than
mediocre grades and exceptional basketball skills. Perhaps he posessed
a talent for old-fashioned gallantry that went largely unnoticed in
the modern hallways of William Gladstone Middle School") and popular
Colleen, cheerful and repressive, cares desperately and distractingly
about what other people think ("She wished she could recapture the
feeling she'd had the other day at school, when for just a few moments
she really didn't care what Laura Gilroy thought of her. But that had
lasted no longer than the flavor in a stick of sugarless bubble gum").
Emma-Jean's developmentally pitch-perfect delusions of her own power
are poignant, but even more stirring is the the underlying message
that being nice and having good intentions counts for something in
this world, even when the best laid plans of mice and men and middle
school girls often go awry. Also impressive was this new author's
ability to write a book in third person that feels as confidential as
first person...aspiring authors, take note of her formidable
technique. This novel is that rare realistic fiction that works as a
read-aloud for older kids, and is also a really perfect choice for
those 'tweeners who are not quite ready for the pallor of some
hard-core young adult fiction. It's light without feeling facile, and
features strong characters that will have plenty of middle-schoolers
saying, "hey, that's me!" (11 and up)
Also of interest:
An extra dose of intermediate girl-power!
It is very rare to find a book in which you cannot manage to turn a
page without laughing, but Sid Fleischman Humor Award winner MILLICENT
MIN: GIRL GENIUS by Lisa Yee (Scholastic) is that book. Millicent's
tentative, earnest steps toward achieving every pre-teen girl's
dream--making and keeping a real best friend--loom larger even than
Millicent's goal to win the Field's Medal, the highest mathematical
honor a person under forty can achieve. ("It would be great to do all
this by age twenty but I don't want to put too much pressure on
myself. Therefore, if it doesn't happen until I am, say, twenty-three,
that's fine with me.") As Millicent tutors a jock named Stanford (who
stars in his own sequel, STANFORD WONG FLUNKS BIG TIME), survives her
first sleepover, spikes a point for her volleyball team and tries
valiantly to hide her genius from her ebullient friend Emily, she
learns that there are book smarts and people smarts, and both are
important. It's nice to have a heroine who is more concerned with
learning curves than body curves, and her character's development is
gradual and convincing and a pleasure to read. Millicent is the
valedictorian of the intermediate reading list (no Field's Medal, I
know, but it will have to do for now). (11 and up)
DIARY OF A WOULD-BE PRINCESS by Jessica Green (Charlesbridge) shows us
that mean girls and typecasts are an international malaise, as an
Australian girl does some clumsy social climbing. Episodic writing is
hilarious in parts, and readers sympathize with feel for the heroine
as her party goes exactly as unplanned, she trips over her own true
talents for public speaking and struggles with the making and keeping
of friends...the best one being a boy. (11 and up)
MAKEOVERS BY MARCIA by Claudia Mills (Farrar Straus Giroux) Marcia is
less than thrilled when she discovers her eighth grade community
service project will entail visits to the local nursing home.
Distracted by pre-teen concerns like her perceived weight gain,
difficulties in art class and the upcoming dance, working with a bunch
of old people is last on her list. When her savvy sister suggests she
combine her talent and interest in makeup with her requisite visits,
it sets off a series of connections that, in the end, help Marcia get
her priorities straight. Mills is a too-often overlooked talent when
it comes to the delicate art of capturing the voice of the 'tweenager:
"Of course, it was only the second week of school, and Marcia knew
that no boy was even thinking of asking a girl to the dance yet. It
would take some serious, but subtle, manipulating by the girls to
plant the seed of that thought in the dry, stony soil of an eighth
grade boy's brain." Marcia's magazine-inspired machinations backfire
hilariously, and her relationships with the elderly blossom in a way
that is both believable and uncontrived. A nice balance is achieved
between who Marcia is trying to be and who she really is, and make her
a character that many girls will look upon with both sympathy and
empathy. Emotional depth, laugh-out-loud humor and a rhythm that
matches the heartbeat of its intended audience mark this well-written
intergenerational story that will inspire community service,
self-esteem and an appetite for more books by the author. (11 and up)
IDA B. AND HER PLANS TO MAXIMIZE FUN, AVOID DISASTER AND (POSSIBLY)
SAVE THE WORLD by Katherine Hannigan (Greenwillow) The unconventional
heroine of this award-winning book is homeschooled, and likes her cozy
world built around her by her loving parents, but when her mother's
health takes a turn for the worse, the family must sell part of their
beloved orchard, and Ida B. must go to a public school. Ida B's
character is a standout as a philosophical, inventive and imaginative,
but also deeply flawed, as she has many preconceptions about people
who are not like her (and in need of her correction), and harbors a
bit of a mean streak. Ultimately she freewheels out of the orbit in
which her only-child self was once the gravitational force, but
whether you like her or not, it's hard to get this precocious
protagonist out of your mind. A must for free-spirits and
tree-spirits. (10 and up)
On a personal note
I recently had the massive pinch-me-I'm-dreaming honor of sharing a
podium with the legendary National Book Award and Newbery-winning
author Katherine Paterson (of BRIDGE TO TEREBITHIA fame) at the recent
conference for the International Reading Association in Toronto. We
both read aloud from our work, and we agreed that her character Rosa
and my character Paris would have made good friends. Everyone was
wildly impressed with the charming Italian affect Katherine gave to
the characters in her recent historical fiction, BREAD AND ROSES, TOO.
I was greatly relieved at how absolutely kind and personable she was,
especially since I don't think I could have been more nervous about
meeting her than if I were meeting the Queen of England. Katherine
Paterson in fact met the Queen of Sweden this year to receive the
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which is pretty much the Nobel Prize
for children's literature.
At the conference, she paraphrased from her lecture given in Stockholm
to the breathless teachers in the room:
"I'm very Biblically oriented, and so for me the most important thing
is for the word to become flesh. I can write stories for children and
young people, and in that sense I can offer them words, but you are
the word become flesh in your classroom. Society has taught our
children that they are nobodies unless their faces appear on
television. But by your caring, by your showing them how important
each one of them is, you become the word that I would like to share
with each of them. You are that word become flesh."
This lecture was personally inspiring to me, as I have often been
questioned about why I went back to teaching when my writing career
was in full swing. It was hard to explain the spiritual and pragmatic
need for a balance between writing and teaching; I did not see the
sense of writing books unless I was also working to support kids
directly so they could and would read. Whether secular or not,
teaching really does feel like the word is being made flesh, and is a
natural compliment to the communication and sharing intrinsic to
writing. Thank you, Katherine Paterson, for articulating that
connection so meaningfully, and acknowledging the work of teachers.
There was not a dry eye in the house, as they say! More of Katherine
Paterson's brilliant and inspirational essays and lectures have been
compiled in the hard-to-find treasure THE INVISIBLE CHILD: ON READING
AND WRITING BOOKS FOR CHILDREN, and Ms. Paterson has been featured in
Gail McMeekin's 12 SECRETS OF HIGHLY CREATIVE WOMEN: A PORTABLE
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