How My Teen Years Inspired My Own Teen Series by Krysten Lindsay Hager

I grew up reading different teen series books about close-knit friends like in the Babysitters Club series, Sweet Valley High, etc. and I always wanted to be in that sort of group and have those friends who always had your back. So when I was in middle school, I created a story with a crew like that. Fast forward to college and a professor mentioned a quote about writing the book you want to read, and I thought back to that middle school idea. However, this time I decided to give the main character a realistic approach and have her feel like everyone around her has this, but soon she realizes no one has the perfect friends or the perfect life—no matter what books, magazines, and social media sites try to tell you with their happy, perky pictures.

My main character Landry Albright is a very loyal friend, maybe even too loyal at times. She doesn’t have the highest self-esteem, and she often backs down from arguing or standing up for herself for the sake of keeping the peace. She tries to keep other people from getting their feelings (or egos) hurt, and sometimes she hides her “light” a little bit because of that. She’s a definite “over-thinker” something she *may* have inherited from me. In the beginning, she only hangs around with her two best friends; and after they shut her out, she is forced to branch out and make new friends. She has to come out of her shell to try and meet people, and she often finds herself hiding her accomplishments to keep her friends from getting jealous. Landry assumes everyone else has it better than she does with their perfect lives and friendships. She begins to learn that isn’t the case and that everyone has their own insecurities and worries. There’s a part of the story where she tells Devon how she’s always wanted dark, curly hair like hers and felt that was the ideal, and Devon responds she always wanted hair like Landry’s. We always think the grass is greener on the other side, don’t we? As time goes on, she begins to learn what true friendship is and be a better friend herself.

The Landry’s True Colors Series deals with the friend drama, jealousy, insecurities that we’ve all dealt with as tweens/teens (and as adults, too!), but in a funny way through Landry’s eyes. We go through her dealing with frenemies, worrying about fitting in, and those modeling auditions that make her stress out (and hopefully make the reader laugh and cringe with her!). I hope people can enjoy the humor and feel a little less alone, realizing that everyone goes through periods of insecurity. I also hope the message that we each have something unique that makes us special comes through. I try to show that instead of trying to fit in, we should appreciate our differences.

Our words have much potency. Therefore, we need to be careful with how they are used. With the end of the school year, I have been having to remind my junior high students to use their words nicely. I had my sixth graders take a piece of paper and write their name on it. Then I told them to punch holes in it. When we were done, after many questions of ‘what in the world are we doing’, I told them to fix the paper. Their solution was to get a new paper or tape it. So, I taped mine and asked if it was the same. They got the point that you can’t fix it exactly. I shared with them that is what our words do to our friends. We may hide the scars inside, but the damage is done.

However, it isn’t just our words. Teenagers are notorious for saying the right things just in the wrong ways. We were constantly getting on our oldest child for that. She was wonderful at seeing things–inconsistencies in us as parents, wrong doing in her siblings, and injustices in the school system. She just had a horrible presentation. We need to be careful of how we say things. Last week, a student greeted me in the hallway. “Hi, Senora Wyatt!” I said hi and continued walking. I then heard the same words, “Hi, Mr. Taylor” expressed to another teacher. Her meaning in her words were two separate identities. With me her words were skipping and bouncing out of her mouth. When she said hi to the other teacher, her words came to an abrupt halt and her feet were dragging in saying it. She said two different things with the same words.

With this in mind, the opposite is true as well. When we are on social media, the internet, writing e-mails, or even regular old-fashioned correspondence, our tone cannot be heard. Our words then become even more important. We need to choose them wisely as we wield them. Words said in jest can be misconstrued when there is no intonation to go with them. To help with this whole issue of social media and communication, a colleague has written a book that has taken her on a whirlwind journey from the concept to the release to the reception. Kindness Wins helps us teach our kids how to use the internet wisely and kindly. Check out Galit Breen’s book. (Well, the picture wouldn’t load, so click here to find it in amazon.)

Our district is a small district; it doesn’t have a lot of funds or a lot of students. What it does have is community support. We have people from the community who say, “I know your kid. I read with him in SMART reading.” Or “I know her; I worked with her for ASPIRE.” We see the gym packed for basketball, but just as crowded for winter and spring concerts and graduation.

So, what does this have to do with Book Week? Well, you see you can read because of a teacher. Those teachers put in time, energy, and creativity to make their classes worth it to the kids. They want the kids to succeed. They work their tails off with multiple hats to make ends meet for themselves, but to see your child do the best he or she can. Kids learn to read or learn to love to read based on teachers. My son struggled through first and second grade with reading. It was torture! Then along came Miss Eve. She piloted some computer programs, she learned about brain games, she put energy into my son. By fourth grade, we went to Hollywood to share the success of one of the piloted computer programs. By then, my son was reading above grade level! It was a teacher who helped.

As you go about your day today, remember those teachers who helped to shape and mold you. If you know a teacher, encourage them. The year is almost over, and kids are antsy to be outside. It takes extra energy and enthusiasm to make it through the end. And if you have a chance, swing by and read the article and watch the video done by The World Newspaper. If you watch the video, you’ll see my daughter welding and you’ll catch a glimpse of my Eighth Grade Spanish class. You’ll be introduced to my town.

Pacific High Pirate

As I had kids, I looked for fantasy and science fiction books that I could share with them. Timothy Zahn’s Dragonback series was one of those fun finds. I read the story of Jack and was immediately hooked from the first chapter with the shipwreck. It was fun to read it with my husband and then to see my kids read them. They loved it as well. The struggles of Jack to try to clear his name and move from thief to a poet warrior give hope to kids and make the reader cheer him on.

It wasn’t always that I showed books to my kids. Sometimes, they found a book and said, “Mom, you have to read this!” One such book was “Mom, you have to listen to this!” They found Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke in an audio book. We sat down in their room and listened as Brendan Fraser worked his magic with Cornilia Funke’s words. Sorrel the Brownie came to life as did Ben, Firedrake, Twigleg, and Nettlebrand. The characters still to this day have his voice when I read the book. The interactions of these characters with each other make the book work and make readers love it. When I teach students to write a children’s fantasy story in Spanish, I use excerpts from this book to show them character development. You can read an excerpt of Dragon Rider online.

The last two years, I had the privilege of spending 50 minutes each day on a one way road trip to school with my now seventeen-year-old son. We found the best way to spend the time, and stay awake, was to listen to audio books. We found all kinds of books. Some that were okay, but not great, and others that made it to my top 10 plus three list of children’s books. One of these was Beyonders by Brandon Mull. The story weaves from the real world into a fantasy world. Jason reaches it by falling into the hippo’s mouth! Literally! From there, he finds himself an unexpected hero. He must fight against the emperor to try to put the Blind King back on the throne. Jason works with another girl from the real world who followed a butterfly into the magical realm. Jason has an opportunity to return home, and must decide if it is worth returning to finish the quest. They go through numerous adventures as they try to fulfill the quest. It is well written, page-turning (if you’re reading it, CD changing if your listening) and encourages the reader to follow after good.

If I haven’t given you enough ideas for a book, then check out the other posts this week from Children’s Book Week. Whatever you do, find a book and curl up and read. Read to your kids, read to your family, read to yourself. Enjoy!

My kids enjoy a book read to them by their grandpa.

Later that evening, we met El Broussard. What impressed me was that despite the fact that there were several hundred students in attendance, El knew that he had spoken with my students and that they were good kids. The kids loved his workshop.  They encouraged me to attend the advisor’s workshop the next day. When I did, El again mentioned that he remembered my kids. He stressed information that I had learned as a step-mom. Relationships are the key to teaching and life.  As a step-mom and parent, I learned that I could not effectively discipline or teach my kids without a relationship. Last year in the middle of the school year, I was asked to co-teach an eighth grade PE class.  I was told that the students were trouble. However, I started looking at the class roster and I knew these were the ‘good’ kids. I couldn’t understand how they were trouble. As I began teaching, I learned that many of the students just weren’t athletic. I built relationships with them and things got better.

On Monday, we began with Heather Schultz. I came away with a ton of quotes from her. She told the story of her pregnancy just a few years ago. It was one where she got emotionally and physically sick. She cried over milk–no, she bawled. When her baby was born, she was eight pounds less than her pre-pregnancy weight and she had been in the hospital 26 times! At 24 weeks after conception, she had to have an emergency c-section. Her little girl was born weighing one pound and fitting into the palm of her hand. After many months, her little daughter came home. We learned a lot about life from this little girl. I’ll give these insights in my twitter account this week.

The way home was different than the way to the conference. The students still plugged into their music, but there were discussions as well. “Who was your favorite speaker?” After everyone answered, the next question came up. “What do you want to do because of what you learned?” The encouraging thing was that I wasn’t the one asking the questions. It was students.  I’m excited to see what next year holds. The students want to be a part of leadership class. They are enthusiastic to do the fundraising for the fall conference.

So, this week as you go about your days, remember “life is pain, Princess.” So, make sure that “no one is a leftover” and that you make relationships with those around you–even those who are difficult to get along with.

We started with music–everything from 80’s music, nightcore, Sabatan, theme music to Sword Art Online and Castle in the Sky, to the 1967 musical movie Oliver Twist.  Talk about eclectic!  The kid sings along with all of them.  He started out with the headphones in one ear, but soon unplugged them and let me listen in.  From there, we discussed all kinds of things.  I informed him that Anastasia was a real story–not the way that Disney portrayed it, but I gave him the facts and my memories of people claiming to be her in the late ’70’s and early ’80’s.  We shared childhood memories–both his and mine.  We covered a zillion topics.  He informed me that even though he may travel in the future, he will always want a home in our home town.  He regaled me with verbatim comedian acts from Jeff Foxworthy and Gabriel Iglesias.  Overall it was a wonderful time.

What did I learn about middle school students?  I was taught that they have eclectic interests.  They are curious and want to learn, but not necessarily what a teacher would want them to learn.  They have hopes and dreams, and can stretch beyond what adults often think they can do.  Why don’t we let them dream and soar?  Why do we tie them down to our world of issues?  Why not give them the tools to enable them to succeed in our world when the time comes?  As a teacher, author, and mom to middle school students, my job is to empower them to live their dreams.  To help them look beyond the black issues of their everyday life and see the rainbow at the end of the day.  To see the silver lining on the clouds.  This is why I teach.  This is why I write, and this is why I’m a mom.

My seventh grader