Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

That’s how I felt about Shannon Hale’s Best Friends, folks. I can often enjoy books about latter elementary/middle school struggles, but sometimes they strike too much of a nerve. Shannon’s misery and fear over ‘if-I-stand-up-for-the-kid-being-picked-on-will-they-turn-on-me is not an emotional place I wanted to return to, and as my 16-year-old pointed out, it’s hard to read a book about someone whose friends aren’t terribly nice. Is it poignant, realistic, and an important book to help a great many kids realize that they aren’t alone in their experiences? Absolutely. My favorite part, however, was the depictions of Lagoon. (Except that then Shannon’s Lagoon experience was also hard to read.) I am so grateful for the mental health resources available for children now–and while Best Friends is definitely quality literature, I am grateful enough to be decades away from that age that I cannot see myself reading it again.

In the meantime, my 5th grader is home from school because she threw up last night. Was it digestion rather than illness, combined with congestion from her cold? Very possibly, but it’s not like I can send her to school with half a piece of bread in her stomach.

Sigh.