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    Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School): A Novel in Doodles
    Unavailable
    Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School): A Novel in Doodles
    Unavailable
    Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School): A Novel in Doodles
    Ebook115 pages5 minutes

    Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School): A Novel in Doodles

    By Karen Romano Young

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    She doesn't just love doodling, she needs it. . . .

    In Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School) by Karen Romano Young, moving is tough. Being the new kid in school is even tougher. But the hardest thing of all about the move that Doreen "Dodo" Bussey's family is making is that she suspects it might be because of her. She got into trouble at her last school.

    On the drive to their new home, her mother gives Dodo a blank notebook, which she uses to chronicle the move, the first days in a new city, and the ups and downs of starting a new school and making new friends. In the process, she reinvents herself as the Doodlebug. Her little sister seems to adjust to everything so easily—why is it so hard for Dodo?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 19, 2013
    ISBN9781250037657
    Unavailable
    Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School): A Novel in Doodles
    Author

    Karen Romano Young

    When Karen Romano Young was growing up, she and her sisters and brother spent most of their time exploring the wetlands down the road. The mill there was home to a woman who taught her about the wetlands and only once yelled at her for destroying frog eggs by stepping on them. These days the author lives near a marsh full of frogs in Bethel, Connecticut, with her husband, three children, two guinea pigs, a dog, and a cat. In Her Own Words... "My first published writing was a poem called My Secret Place. I wrote it in fourth grade, and it appeared in my local paper and in a book of 100 poems written by children in our school district. The place in the poem was a shady spot under trees, but more important was what I did there: write! "I've kept a diary since I was nine, and as a child I wrote poems and stories and lots of letters. If I wasn't writing, I was reading. Everyone around me read-to themselves, to each other, to me. My grandmother has this saying framed on her wall: "Richer than 1, you will never be, for I had a mother who read to me." I'll add to that: My mother took me to the library-the Fairfield Children's Library in Fairfield, Connecticut, where I grew up. Once I was too old to have a child's card, I even worked there, looking after the picture books and children's novels all the way through high school and even on vacations home from my school, Syracuse University. "Part of my college education was a semester in England, where I did an independent study of storytelling and folklore (especially, different versions of "Rumpelstiltskin") that took me all over the country reading and telling stories to children. At the end of college my English boyfriend, Mark Young, immigrated, and we got married in Connecticut. "My first job was writing for Scholastic's news magazines-the ones kids use in their classrooms to learn about the news and lots of other things. What a cool job: interviewing all sorts of people, doing tons of research, writing on a very short deadline. It was hard and colorful and lively and exciting, and I spent every day in New York City. I had gone to college to learn to be a teacher-but now I was hooked on writing for a living and never went back to teaching. "After our daughter Bethany was born, I decided I didn't need a New York office--or even a spot under the trees--to be able to write. I stayed home and worked in the spare bedroom. I wrote for all kinds of children's magazines, covering everything from rock climbing to rocket science. "Around the time Sam was born, I began writing nonfiction books. I've written about so many different things, but I especially love writing about people and all the different ways they live their lives: high-wire artists, Arctic scientists, a lady who tap-danced across the Golden Gate Bridge, and a man who walked all the way around the world. "When Emily was born, writing time was tight. But I had lots of time to think. During high school I had written a picture book called The Blue Volkswagen. Now I began thinking about where that old Beetle might be these days. One day I took the kids to the library. Outside, a woman was selling prints of her photographs. One of them showed an old Beetle sitting in the doorway of a barn. I bought it, took it home, and began writing a story in the twenty minutes a day I had to myself. I didn't write about my real self or about anything that had really happened to me, but I tried to think of my story as I would have felt or acted if I were Daisy living in that farmhouse at that time. After The Beetle and Me came Video, and more and more stories after that. "My husband, children, dog, cat, guinea pigs, and I have a small, noisy, weird house in the Connecticut woods. Our lives are full of books, and we all read every chance we get. I write everyplace: in the kitchen, in the car, in the barn, in the school parking lot, in the Reading Room at the New York Public Library, at the beach. I write and write and write...."

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    Reviews for Stuck in the Middle (of Middle School)

    3.5/5

    14 ratings3 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Kids will pore over Dodo's doodles, if not be inspired to document their own lives with a doodle diary. But these aging eyes found the format cluttered and distracting, and the story wasn't memorable enough for me to remember what came before when I picked it up again.
    • 3/5
      I had a hard time appreciating this book, but I think kids will enjoy it. It will hopefully inspire some readers to keep a notebook of their own for doodling and writing.
    • 5/5
      Doreen and her family are relocating from LA to San Fransciso--and Doreen is nervous and blames herself. She had big problems in her last school--didn't want to take her ADHD meds, made some bad decisions and got expelled--and wants to reinvent her self for a fresh start in SF. Doreen decides to journal in DOODLES to help her cope with these big changes for herself and her entire family. Written entirely in DOODLES--Doodlebug is fast paced- frenetic even- and full of fun and drama and all things wonderful and compelling-- I loved it so did every girl i offered it to. Romano clearly remembers what it is like to be a kid, to make mistakes, to want a clean slate, to reinvent yourself as the person you want to be-- all her characters and observations are spot on. The Art is the story--they are inseparable- Fresh and fun-- a great journal/diary book that will lead to many future Doodlebugs. YES!