BOOK PICKS.Byline: The Register-Guard "Not Much, Just Chillin': The Hidden Lives of Middle Schoolers" By Linda Perlstein Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003 For ages 15 and up, but mostly for parents As any parent knows, ask any kid between the ages of 12 and 14 the question "What's up?" and you're likely to get an answer something like: "Not much, just chillin'." An odd response, because underneath that cool facade facade (fəsäd`), exterior face or wall of a building. The term implies ordered placement of its openings and other features and thus seems inapplicable to a wall without design. is a roiling, confused soul. They go from striving for A's to barely passing. Former chatterboxes answer in monosyllables. They obsess ob·sess v. ob·sessed, ob·sess·ing, ob·sess·es v.tr. To preoccupy the mind of excessively. v.intr. for hours over "boyfriends" they've barely spoken to. Their bodies and psyches are undergoing the most radical changes since infancy infancy, stage of human development lasting from birth to approximately two years of age. The hallmarks of infancy are physical growth, motor development, vocal development, and cognitive and social development. , and they're in a constant yet erratic er·rat·ic adj. 1. Having no fixed or regular course; wandering. 2. Lacking consistency, regularity, or uniformity: an erratic heartbeat. 3. struggle with themselves, parents, teachers and peers. Linda Perlstein, an education writer for the Washington Post, wrote this book after spending an entire year immersing herself in middle school culture. She tried to make herself a fly on the wall as she spent time with kids in school, at home, at parties, in church, in the lunchroom - winning their confidence as someone who would be accepting of their behavior (a very difficult task sometimes, Perlstein admits). "Not Much, Just Chillin' " follows the lives of five representative kids and their friends. She discusses such issues as their tumultuous relationships with parents, their giddy and snappish snap·pish adj. 1. Likely to snap or bite, as a dog. 2. Irritable and curt: a snappish tone of voice; a snappish debating partner. dealings with friends, romance (which, curiously, doesn't necessarily imply spending any time together), the role of school in their lives, their awakening sexual interest, their habits as consumers, their awkward feelings about their bodies. As Perlstein writes about what she saw and heard she exposes not only what these "tweeners" do, but also what they think and feel. And it will surprise you. The book is similar to other books dealing with middle schoolers, such as "The Roller Coaster What a bad CD-R disc is often called. See CD-R and underrun. Years," by Charlene Gianetti, and Anthony Wolf's "Get Out Of My Life, But First Could You Drive Me and Cheryl To The Mall?" But I believe it's more authentic. Perlstein cracks through the don't-touch-me facade and takes us into the previously unexplored, sometimes poignant, often frightening "hidden lives of middle schoolers." This is an important book for those of us who are trying to parent or teach these children. - Wes Young, librarian, Lincoln Middle School Lincoln Middle School may refer to:
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