SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

March 14, 2016 by Robin Willis

Guidebook to Middle School (Monday): Author Karen Rivers Guest Post

March 14, 2016 by Robin Willis   1 comments

Editorial note: A few months ago, I featured Karen’s The Girl in the Well is Me on MSM. It was one of my favorite titles I read last year, and it is finally available for the rest of you to read and enjoy! We invited Karen to guest post today on her own middle school experiences and provide a peek behind the curtain at what inspired the main character of her book, Kammie.

RiversMaybe there’s a Guidebook to middle school that everyone has except for me. I imagine a leather embossed cover, clear instructions, and secret advice. But when I reached under my pillow for it at twelve, all I ever felt were smooth, cool sheets. An empty space.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

When I was eleven, my dad had a heart attack. I was lying on the floor in our rumpus room where the yellow tiles always remained cool, no matter how hot the day, playing a video game on the broken TV set that I had to turn on using pliers, each time getting a shock that would nearly jolt me off my feet.

I remember my mum coming into the room and saying, “Something has happened to your dad.” That moment is trapped forever in time as a Moment When Everything Changed, encased in the half-light from the glowing screen.

My dad survived but everything changed. My parents stopped being immortal. I had new reasons to be afraid. In the kitchen, in low voices, late at night, it was decided that for financial reasons, I would change to schools.

A new school. A whole new set of kids. A new start.

On the first day of my new school, sixth grade, a boy asked me to borrow a pencil. I’d never been to school with boys before. What was he really asking me? Unable to decide how to react, I froze and blushed. I was wearing the wrong clothes, had the wrong haircut, and was painfully aware of my crooked teeth and glasses in a way I’d never been before. The moment stretched between us, impossibly long. Finally he said, “What’s your problem? You weirdo.” He walked away.

I didn’t talk to anyone else for the rest of the day. I couldn’t figure out how to make air go into and out of my lungs properly.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

I’d never felt this way before: unpopular, disliked, and misunderstood. I walked home on shaking legs. I’d been given a chance to invent myself, and I’d done it all wrong. I missed my chance: I could have acted confident. I could have feathered my hair away from my face. I could have worn jeans. I could have smiled. But it was too late. I’d already established who I was: “You weirdo.”

Every time I start writing a new middle-grade novel, I get to have a new first day of middle school, a new first impression to make. Some of my characters are more savvy than others—more or less like me, more or less like who I wished I’d been. Some of them understand (or think they understand) how to play the game. When Kammie, the protagonist of The Girl in the Well Is Me is moved from her suburban school in New Jersey to a small town in Texas after circumstances alter her family forever, she understands that she has been given an opportunity to be whoever she chooses to be. Someone new. Someone different.

gitwimI think maybe Kammie did get the Guidebook. She may not have understood what it said, but she tried, and I love her for it.   She was a delight to write, and I’m so pleased that she exists within the covers of this book, bravely figuring out who she can choose to be, who she is, and how being true to herself is the bravest act of all.

 Karen Rivers has written novels for adult, middle-grade, and young adult audiences. Her books have been nominated for a wide range of literary awards and have been published in multiple languages. When she’s not writing, reading, or visiting schools, she can usually be found hiking in the forest that flourishes behind her tiny, old house in Victoria, British Columbia, where she lives with her two kids, two dogs, two birds, and two fish.

Filed under: Uncategorized

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Robin Willis

After working in middle school libraries for over 20 years, Robin Willis now works in a public library system in Maryland.

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

December 2022

Book Mail: Romances, thrillers, mysteries, dystopias, and more!

by Robin Willis

December 2022

The Difference Between YA and NA, a former teen now new adult reader perspective

by Robin Willis

December 2022

Post-It Note Reviews: Quick looks at 9 new titles

by Robin Willis

October 2022

Reclaiming Queer History, a guest post by James Brandon

by Robin Willis

October 2022

I Wrote a Book About the Pandemic. I'm Scared No One Will Want to Read It, a guest post by Sara Saedi

by Robin Willis

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

One Star Review, Guess Who? (#181)

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

That Flag: An Interview with Tameka Fryer Brown

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Monkey Prince Vol. 1: Enter the Monkey | Review

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Heavy Medal

Heavy Medal Mock Newbery Readers’ Poll Results

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

The Value of Innocence for BIPOC Students, a guest post by David Mura

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

Looking Ahead: Our 2023 Preview

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

Serving Students in Poverty: 12 Recommended Books for Tweens and Teens

SLJ and Penguin Random House Create Poster Supporting the Freedom to Read

14 Nonfiction Titles for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages

Five Ways to Model SEL Competencies This School Year

Best Books 2022 | The Year in SLJ Covers

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kathleen says

    March 14, 2016 at 11:09 am

    A wonderful post introducing THE GIRL IN THE WELL to me. Karen thank you for sharing your heart and how it influenced your writing. There is a middle schooler in all of us that can relate to those first days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023