And I’ve seen them all in their specially picked outfits at that first middle school dance. I’ve comforted Colleen when one of her friends was mad at her. I’ve seen Emma Jean watching the other kids at lunch. As a middle school English teacher, I recognized these kids. If you spend any time in a middle school, you’ll love it because the characters are so real. If you’re a writer, you should read it because it’s a fantastic example of how to pull off changing points of view in third person narrative. Because Emma Jean is brilliant at math and logic, just like her father who died two years ago, she uses logic to find solutions to her classmates’ problems, with results that are hilarious and heartwarming. She reminds me a lot of Lisa Yee’s Millicent Min, Girl Genius. This is a big deal for all of us, but especially for Emma Jean, who’s one of those brilliant, wise-beyond-her-years kids who seems to watch everything from the sidelines. Figuratively, it’s the door we all open when we make the sometimes scary decision to reach out to another human being. Literally, it’s the door to the girls’ bathroom at school, where she finds Colleen Pomerantz (a kind, sensitive girl and not one of the usual 7th grade criers) sobbing over a problem with a friend. This story begins Emma Jean Lazarus opens a door.
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