School Days

School's back in session!  With the first day of school just behind us, students of all ages are settling down into new schools, new grades, and new worlds of fresh challenges. (And maybe just a little wistful daydreaming of the next summer vacation.)

So if you know a student who might need some help getting back into the school spirit, try one of these recommended reads about the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of school life.



For Kindergarteners:

-- I Am Too Absolutely Small for School by Lauren Child

Though they have their own animated TV show now, Lola and older brother Charlie got their start as characters in Lauren Child's immensely popular Charlie and Lola picture book series. Seven-year-old Charlie is a very kind older brother who occasionally finds it challenging when he's asked to mind his precocious and imaginative four-year-old little sister -- especially when Soren Lorenson, Lola's best imaginary friend, is around.

When Mum and Dad decide that Lola is big enough to start school, Lola's not so sure it's a good idea. "I probably do not have time to go to school," she informs Charlie. "I am too extremely busy doing important things at home."

But Charlie is quick to point out all the important things Lola needs to learn how to do (like writing letters to Santa Claus, reading secret messages on the fridge, or learning how to count out the correct number of snacks in case of surprise elephant attacks). Persuaded at last, Lola decides to give school a go, and discovers it just might be fun after all. (Even if Soren Lorenson is a bit nervous.)



For Elementary School Students:

-- Wayside School series by Louis Sachar

1. Sideways Stories From Wayside School

2. Wayside School is Falling Down 

3. Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger

Wayside: The Movie [DVD]

Wayside School was designed to be a normal elementary school -- a one-story building with thirty classrooms inside. But the builder got it a little wrong, and accidentally constructed a thirty-story building with one classroom on each floor. (He said he was very sorry.)

So perhaps it's to be expected that Wayside School is a school where strange things tend to happen. Where students are sometimes actually rats, math problems are made up of words instead of numbers,  and there is no 19th floor.

The series kicks off with thirty stories about the class on their thirtieth floor -- and their new teacher, Mrs. Jewls (their former teacher got turned into an apple). These clever, funny, and zany little tales are the perfect read for students of all ages.

For Middle-School Students:

-- Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm

The premise of this book rests in the idea that the things around us have a story to tell. And in this book, it makes for a compelling argument. Cards, notes, school reports, diary entries, receipts, mail, invitations, report cards, and more are all used to tell the story of a year in the life of Ginny Davis. She's kicking off her first year of middle school with a list of goals that include a starring role in her dance school's production of The Nutcracker, rekindling her friendship with former chum Mary Catherine Kelly, keeping her older brother Henry in line ... and getting her mother to marry Bob so that Ginny can have a proper stepdad at last. But, as Ginny is quick to discover, such plans rarely go as expected.

Told with English class essays, text messages, shopping receipts, teacher notes, cards from her Grandpa, and Ginny's own notes and pictures, the story of Ginny's ups and downs of her first middle school year is told in a wholly unique style.



-- It's the First Day of School ... Forever! by R.L. Stine

Phil Connors of Groundhog Day got off easy. Artie has a much bigger problem: he's stuck repeating the first day of sixth grade.

Artie starts off the morning by falling out of bed and smacking his head -- not a good way to kick off your first day of school. The day only goes downhill from there: his little brother gets glue in Artie's hair, Artie's dog jumps up on the new school principal, and Artie manages to make enemies with Brick the Bully. At least tomorrow will have to be better ... until Artie wakes up and discovers he's trapped, reliving the first (and worst) day of school. What's a new sixth-grader to do?

This humorous (and horrifying) read is a perfect fit between premise and writer: author R.L. Stine has long been known as the master of horror for the middle school set. His popular Goosebumps series is full of creepily fun titles like The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, It Came From Beneath the Sink! and The Cuckoo Clock of Doom. Stine is always careful to find a balance between the screams and the laughs in his quirky midde-school novellas, and it pays off in spades in this fun and freaky read.



For High School Students:

-- Freaks and Geeks [DVD]

Though short-lived (the show ran for only eighteen episodes), Freaks and Geeks has become an undeniable cult classic. It was created by Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids and The Heat, and produced by Judd Apatow, who directed Knocked Up and This is Forty. 

Set in the early 80s, the show was timeless in its representation of the high school hierarchy. "Mathlete" Lindsay Weir is struggling to break out of the expectations put on her by herself and others, and so befriends the "freaks" -- the misfit slackers who are on the fringes of the William McKinley High School social scene. Meanwhile, her younger brother, Sam, hangs out with his fellow "geeks" as he and his friends work hard to fit in.

The show played with the humor of teenage stereotypes, but was always aware of the pain involved in finding yourself and your place in the world ... and in high school. It makes for a relatable story that should appeal to high school students everywhere -- and those who remember those school days.

-- Post by Ms. B

Staff Recommendation #29: Daria

"I'm too smart and too sensitive to live in a world like ours at a time like this with a sister like mine. Maybe I do miss out on stuff -- but this attitude is what works for me now."

From Freaks and Geeks to Friday Night Lights; from Beverly Hills, 90210 to Buffy the Vampire Slayer; from The Wonder Years to Smallville -- television shows exploring the trials and tribulations of high school are hardly in short supply. And the variety of approaches that such shows have taken are truly extraordinary, incorporating elements of everything from sci-fi to soap opera.

But for me, there is no show about high school that's quite like Daria.

Daria and Friends

(Such as they are)

The show centers on the title character, a seventeen-year-old high school student whose family has just recently moved to the town of Lawndale. Her family includes her mother, Helen, a workaholic attorney who nonetheless means it when she says that family comes first; and her father, Jake, a slightly-unbalanced but well-meaning consultant, who rarely understands his kids but is always there for them. And then there's Quinn, Daria's younger sister, a materialistic and Popular girl who becomes vice president of her new school's Fashion Club within the first week ... and who has more depth to her than anyone (least of all Daria) might always see. They are characters who contradict themselves, making them a fitting family for Daria herself -- as complex a character as you could ask for.

Filled with biting wit and sarcastic observations, Daria is known as a dorky "brain" at school. She's an outsider to most of her fellow students, and has few friends. Luckily, she's got one -- a best friend, Jane, who comes from her own quirky family and wants to be an artist.

Daria and Jane on a school field trip.

Heavy emphasis on the "field."

There's a lot of reasons to love Daria: she's a reader, a writer, and a person willing to think for herself. But it's also hard not to admire her for her quippy one-liners:


"Sometimes, your shallowness is so thorough, it's almost like depth."

"Do you think if you breathe on me, I might catch your enthusiasm?"

"My biggest fear right now is that I'll wake up and this conversation won't be a dream."

"I've been busy procrastinating all day."

"I don't like kids. I didn't even like kids when I was a kid."

"It never would've worked. I mean, unless I tried, or something."

"There is no moment in life that can't be improved with pizza."

"You're never going to make friends if you keep your nose buried in a book!"
"Let's hope."

Daria and her baby-sitting charges

But Daria isn't quite the cynic she makes herself out to be. She's not miserable or hard-hearted -- she just likes to think for herself. And she knows there's often a price for that -- including the undeniably tough position of not always feeling accepted. "I'm so defensive," she admits at one point, "That I actively work to make people dislike me, so I don't feel bad when they do." Her sarcasm is more of a shield than a sword -- though she's not afraid to wield such verbal weapons as needed when she finds a cause she believes in.

The show, which premiered in 1997 on MTV, ran for five seasons. Throughout its run, Daria faces challenges to her friendships, her relationships, and her own belief system. By the end of the series, Daria is not only graduated from high school and preparing for her first semester of college -- she'd also discovered that it might be okay to leave some of her cynicism behind.

She finds her answers in an unquestionably Daria-ish fashion, and without compromising the core of her wholly unique character. But her unique character is precisely what makes her so easy to relate to -- even after you've left high school behind.

Request Daria: The Complete Animated Series from the Catalog here

-- Post by Ms. B