SUCH THOUGHTS! I've a plethora of them, but the loudest thoughts are:
1.) we need to lobby for a reprint, immediately - with a new illustrator, obviously, because the additional use of secondary sexual characteristics as part of the shaming of round bellies on the female body is gross and makes me want to reach through time and slap the illustrator - but mostly, we need this reprint yesterday and MOAR books featuring girls having irreconcilable differences and deciding, "No."
2.) I'll be seeking my own copy, posthaste, and hope there are more like this - and I also am a teensy bit resentful that I was a baby in this era and no one thought ahead to save me this book???
3.) I've been trying to be much more honest in my middle grade writings, and it's amazing how few of us feel good about writing people NOT getting along. Girls really are pressured to sing The Get Along Gang's national anthem at all times. It doesn't end when you're an adult. How much better to learn earlier to vote with your feet, and that actions and attitudes have consequences.
4.) Also, Judy really rocks that 'fit, doesn't she???
1) YES YES YES YES YES on using breasts as part of the shaming, THANK YOU for articulating that. My brain rolled it all up together in a big ball of NO THANK YOU, and I absolutely should have specified that that was a part of it, THANK YOU. I am so annoyed all over again, because that—and the eyebrows-as-monstrous thing, did Pène du Bois think children should be plucking their eyebrows??—was the one aspect of this book that didn't work for me.
2) I'd have also loved this one as a kid & especially would have appreciated the 'sometimes you have to just NOPE OUT' message. I eventually got there on my own, but it would have been really helpful in, say, fifth through eighth grade.
3) It's a challenging needle to thread even as an adult—I can have empathy and understanding for someone and still be like... I don't want to be around this person. But then continue to have those guilty feelings of AM I BEING UNFAIR, even when spending time with that person feels like continuously banging my head against a wall?? When talking with kids, it's even harder because all of those feelings are so complicated, and it's hard to break them down into the essence of what they are? Which is why I appreciate folks like you and Anne Ursu and Justina Ireland and Elana K. Arnold in the middle grade space—you all have this way of distilling and crystalizing all of that tangle into something that SOUNDS simple, even though it isn't. Middle grade authors truly blow my mind. I'm forever grateful that you choose to share your hearts and minds with us.
SUCH THOUGHTS! I've a plethora of them, but the loudest thoughts are:
1.) we need to lobby for a reprint, immediately - with a new illustrator, obviously, because the additional use of secondary sexual characteristics as part of the shaming of round bellies on the female body is gross and makes me want to reach through time and slap the illustrator - but mostly, we need this reprint yesterday and MOAR books featuring girls having irreconcilable differences and deciding, "No."
2.) I'll be seeking my own copy, posthaste, and hope there are more like this - and I also am a teensy bit resentful that I was a baby in this era and no one thought ahead to save me this book???
3.) I've been trying to be much more honest in my middle grade writings, and it's amazing how few of us feel good about writing people NOT getting along. Girls really are pressured to sing The Get Along Gang's national anthem at all times. It doesn't end when you're an adult. How much better to learn earlier to vote with your feet, and that actions and attitudes have consequences.
4.) Also, Judy really rocks that 'fit, doesn't she???
1) YES YES YES YES YES on using breasts as part of the shaming, THANK YOU for articulating that. My brain rolled it all up together in a big ball of NO THANK YOU, and I absolutely should have specified that that was a part of it, THANK YOU. I am so annoyed all over again, because that—and the eyebrows-as-monstrous thing, did Pène du Bois think children should be plucking their eyebrows??—was the one aspect of this book that didn't work for me.
2) I'd have also loved this one as a kid & especially would have appreciated the 'sometimes you have to just NOPE OUT' message. I eventually got there on my own, but it would have been really helpful in, say, fifth through eighth grade.
3) It's a challenging needle to thread even as an adult—I can have empathy and understanding for someone and still be like... I don't want to be around this person. But then continue to have those guilty feelings of AM I BEING UNFAIR, even when spending time with that person feels like continuously banging my head against a wall?? When talking with kids, it's even harder because all of those feelings are so complicated, and it's hard to break them down into the essence of what they are? Which is why I appreciate folks like you and Anne Ursu and Justina Ireland and Elana K. Arnold in the middle grade space—you all have this way of distilling and crystalizing all of that tangle into something that SOUNDS simple, even though it isn't. Middle grade authors truly blow my mind. I'm forever grateful that you choose to share your hearts and minds with us.
4) AND BERTHA'S PANTSUIT OMG
OMG. Hilarious and, yes, awesome.