Back To School With Tracye Wilhelm

School, school, here again

Catching up with old friends

Can’t wait to begin

 

The summer holiday is over. Schools have either started, or will be starting the world over. Having been out of school for some time, I am still thrilled to see all the back-to-school displays in the store.  Call me a geek, but I’ve always loved school. The cooling weather always seemed to spark the excitement of meeting up with old friends, finding new ones, and, much to my parent’s chagrin, deciphering what new troubles I could create.

Elementary school was the most thrilling listening to my friends’ stories about their exciting summer adventures, like Emmie in Bread, Bacon, and the Really Big Fish by Gail Hedrick, The Unexpected Thief by Keith Hardy, and Silly Sock Grandma by Susanna Hargreaves.

Of course there were also the “other” lessons learned in school, the ones not in the lesson plans. Being the tallest and the skinniest kid in school, much like Jacko the Giraffe (by Karen Lewis) had me finding friends in unique company, similar to Royal Ferdinand by Donald Ford, and dealing with adversaries, as Rowan and Fern do in Squirrel Wars by Jane Finch. All in hopes of being the cool kid like Koolura in The Legend of Koolura by Michael Thal, I never quite managed it. I was the kid with the backpack full of extra books because I liked them.

Junior high seemed to be focused solely on being popular. As if being tall and obsessed with books weren’t enough, I now had to contend with pop-bottle glasses. Did I mention the geek reference already? I was a prime target for bullying, and I wish we had our own bully squad like what Jack creates in The Bully Squad by Tony Jacks. My troubles were nothing when compared to those of Mandy in The Trouble With Mandy by Shirley Bigelow DeKelver, or Kate in Linked Through Time by Jessica Tornese. Having to sleep next to a skeleton while worrying about a baby eagle, or waking up back in time in my now-dead aunt’s body definitely top the list of troubles I never had to deal with! And I definitely never dealt with a drag-queen-by-night dad as Sindy Winger does in My Dad's A Drag by Linda Flynn.

Once high school started and I was no longer faced with the troubles of an early teen. We had more somber issues to deal with. Ahh the pressures of still being a “kid” but with adult responsibilities and fun lurking right around the corner. All the life lessons of school culminated at University. It was fun, it was hard, it was exciting, but not nearly as exciting as events at Lanesboro College Active Shooter!

Now that my oldest is starting school I am looking forward to her learning to make new friends, and getting to hear all about their adventures. Maybe she’ll even meet someone with A Cow Named John (by Gail Picado)!

 

Posted by Tracye Wilhem

Solstice Publishing

Marketing Director