Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

Okay, I admit, I chose that title mostly for the alliteration. Still, it’s basically accurate–after reading Maria Scrivan’s Forget Me Nat, I find myself wishing my junior high crushes had ended as well for me as Nat’s does for her. Not that her crush likes her back, mind–and this is hardly a spoiler when the book’s description tells you that he “just wants to be friends”–but that her friends both support her AND call her on it when her wallowing grows excessively selfish. That plus her recognition of how NOT to get over heartbreak and, later, how to actually GET over heartbreak (I loved those pages–it was a perfect graphic novel moment!) made Nat’s junior high–middle school?–crush an actual opportunity for growth.

By contrast, I look back at my junior high self and all I can think of is Jean Claude, the French Pea, telling Archibald Asparagus, “I am embarrassed for you!” (Here that is, for your viewing pleasure…The Hopperena (Veggie Tales)) I didn’t generally speak to the objects of my crushes; I just mooned from afar in a lonely and pathetic sort of way. (Okay, there was one boy when I was in 10th grade, but as I wasn’t old enough to date, I had to say no when he asked me. Which, believe me, was a WONDERFUL thing. I was not at all mature enough to be on a date with a boy.) I also never made it to the point where I understood how important it was to be a happy, whole person myself, with or without a boy in the picture. Forget Me Nat does an impressive job at conveying healthy emotional attitudes in a young-feeling story that’s a bit lighter on text than your average middle grade graphic novel. In short–I’m almost as excited to pass it on to my 11-year-old as she is to get it from me. It can only help her as she dives into middle school this August.

MY 11-YEAR-OLD IS STARTING MIDDLE SCHOOL THIS YEAR.

Excuse me while I go engage in some self-soothing rituals…