She was so excited to study J.K. Rowling, I hated bursting her bubble. "J.K. Rowling is awesome, but she's actually not American."
"Huh? She's not? No, I guess she's not, huh? Why was she on the great Americans list?"
I didn't have an answer for her. But we did talk about other possibilities for who #1 could study.
"All the good ones are taken, " she sighed. "I really wanted to do J.K. Rowling. Maybe I could do a different writer?"
Yes! #1 is my daughter! I immediately envisioned us reading Little Women together or pouring over William Carlos Williams poems late into the night.
"Sure! There's Wallace Stegner or Willa Cather. Those are great American writers. This will be so fun!!! I can help you research them and I know a really good book about..."
"Judy Blume. I want to do Judy Blume."
"Wha?"
"Yea, Judy Blume. You know, Superfudge?"
Trying to recover from fleeting euphoric hope, now dashed, I said, "Ok. Sure I'm sure she will be a fun American writer to study."
I emailed her teacher and although Judy Blume was not on the approved list of great Americans, he would allow it since the J.K. Rowling thing was his fault in the first place.
So last night, armed with the Judy Blume biography she found in her school library, #1 started her writing homework. Write ten interesting facts about your great American.
#1 had already covered the basics. Where and when she was born... #1 still needed about 8 facts, so I picked up her biography and started scanning the pages.
About halfway through the book, I looked at #1, suppressing my alarm. "So did you read this book?"
"Yep."
"The whole thing?"
"Yep."
"Did you understand everything?"
"I think so."
"Do you understand what this word means? Or this word?" Pointing to the words, menstruate and sexuality.
"Not really."
Did you know that some of Judy Blume's books were banned from school libraries because of their sexual content?
Yup.
It's going to be a long month.
6 comments:
Look at the bright side... Superfudge is much more kid-friendly than Angle of Repose. :)
Good luck! Missed you at card club! I'm doing the make and take next time so it's guaranteed to be AWESOME!
Yes, someone clued me in to this fact a few years ago. I think the book is called Forever, and for the heck of it I picked it up OUT OF THE CHILDREN SECTION at Target about a year ago and started reading it.
It is descriptive and FULL of sex. And I don't mean that sex is alluded to. There are full-blown play-by-plays and the girl in it names her boyfriends (ahem) Ralph. It was sickening. But I am glad my friend clued me in about it because she had checked it out in ELEMENTARY school and devoured it, as most curious kids would.
Who knew?
aside from the understandable concerns about superfudge... you must have serious concerns about her teacher thinking rowling is american! i haven't seen or read one harry potter movie or book and somehow managed to ascertain her nationality. imagine the travesty of a FEMALE GREAT AMERICAN list- would her teacher know the sex of a certain 'j.k.'?
Hysterical. Education in America - not so hysterical. Yikes.Good luck.
Wow. I didn't know that! I am going to read my kids books when they do. Man, I thought that some of the stuff in Diary of a Wimpy Kid was a little mature for my 8yr. old. i.e. Roderick's ADULT magazine that he gets caught with in the MOVIE and book. I think that the serious is quite funny... but I think that some topics do not need to be added to make it more appealing.
Post a Comment