FAKE by Donna Cooner

Thanks to the @kidlitexchange network for the review copy of this book - all opinions are my own.

Fake by Donna Cooner is a unique take on the high school popularity game. Maisie is tired of being ashamed of her overweight body and tired of hearing the popular kids make cutting remarks about how she looks. When she’s forced to be lab partners with Jesse, the king of these insults, she’s determined to make him suffer. She creates a fake online profile for a pretty girl she names Sienna, and gets to work making all of the popular kids believe Sienna is real. Maisie, who already escaped real life by drawing comics, now puts work into developing Sienna’s internet presence. Before too long, even Maisie has trouble remembering what is real and what happened online. She’s scared at being found out, but she‘s hooked on feeling popular and accepted.

Personally I was drawn into this book because Maisie is overweight and uncomfortable with it. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE all these YA books with overweight main characters who love their bodies and have confidence oozing out of every pore, but that wasn’t my experience. I was a chubby kid and struggled with weight and body image all through high school, and I wasn’t comfortable with it or confident about it. I always wanted to see that reflected in fiction, because otherwise I felt even worse about myself. Why wasn’t I confident about my size like other characters? Why was I so nervous about standing in front of the class and letting them see my whole body instead of being like other characters? I love that Maisie lets body conscious teens feel seen and understood, then empowers them in a realistic way. 

I highly recommend you check this book out for yourself when it releases on October 1, 2019!

The King of Kindergarten

Plot Summary

Today's a big day - the first day of kindergarten! The story is told in second person, with "you" being the little boy starting school. He wakes up, gets ready, has breakfast, and is encouraged by his parents to be kind and strong. He goes through the routine of the school day, which is brand new and exciting to him, such as "the never-ending mystery of numbers". Everything is (appropriately) described in terms of royalty, from the school bus being a "big yellow carriage" to sitting at "your round table". 

Critical Analysis

The illustrations in the book are colorful, vibrant, and convey the excitement of the text. The royalty humor will appeal to adults as much as to children, who so often love imagination play and making grand pronouncements about their everyday tasks. The words have great rhythm in their simplicity; they explain the first day of kindergarten with concise happiness. The children and adults in this book are realistically diverse.

Personal Response

Today is my son's first day of kindergarten, so I love the timing of this book's release! We went to see author Derrick Barnes at a local bookstore a week ago, and it was fantastic to hear him read his own work. He also talked extensively and candidly about his writing life. He was also very open about his family, as this book is based on and dedicated to his youngest son. (Crown was also written about and for an older son.) I love the language used in this book because my son definitely repeats new words he learns, and there are very vivid, descriptive words for him to integrate into his vocabulary.

Reviews and Awards

From Publisher's Weekly: "When a mother gives her son the titular nickname, it inspires him throughout his first day of school—the child imagines that a chalk-drawn crown is sitting on his head as he walks through the 'towering doors' of the 'grand fortress' and into his 'Kindergarten Kingdom.'"

     Kirkus Reviews notes, "The playful illustrations use texture and shadow to great effect, with vibrant colors and dynamic shapes and lines sustaining readers’ interest on every page. Text and visuals work together beautifully to generate excitement and confidence in children getting ready to enter kindergarten."

Connections and Activities

At the book signing, we were given promotional crowns, as seen in the top picture. A fun craft would be for new kindergartners to decorate their own crowns. You could start from scratch with white paper and colors, or use gold paper and have them add stickers and jewels.

Kindergartners can also talk about their own first day, or if they haven't started yet, they can talk about their expectations and how they imagine their days might go. This activity can be continued on paper, with students drawing themselves as kindergarten royalty, their school as a castle, their own personal carriage, etc.

Read it for yourself!

Barnes, Derrick. 2019. The King of Kindergarten. Ill. by Vanessa Brantley-Newton. New York: Nancy Paulsen Books.

First Camp Nano in the Books!

July was my first time participating in Camp Nanowrimo, though I've tried to participate in Nanowrimo every year since 2007.  I always love having a push to write, which has been my favorite thing about Nanowrimo, even when I didn't win. But participating in Camp always felt like too much - I don't know if it was the timing or just my mindset.

Summer is actually a great time for me to write, because work is a little slower and my kid is up playing longer, since the sun's out later, so that gives me time to explore my ideas. Since I started pushing myself to write daily this year, and have actually been writing daily since June, this seemed like a good way to continue my streak.

Spoiler alert: I won!

I put a little more at stake for Camp Nanowrimo, though. I challenged myself to a 20,000 word short story... but really, I wanted write about 1,000 words of fiction most days. One day I knew I'd be off work, so I set a goal for 1,500 (and didn't reach it - that'll teach me!), and one day I knew I'd be meeting my overall goal of 20,000 words, so I relaxed to 500 words. Since my 20,000 goal would be reached before the end of the month, my more informal goal was to complete that one short story, and at least start two more. I want to aim towards finishing more so I can start submitting like I did in college (and have hardly done since then, whoops).

Here are some stats for my month of Camp

• I wrote 31/31 days!
• I wrote 25,956 words total.
• I reached my 20,000 word goal on July 19th.
• I wrote an average of 837 words a day.
• My biggest writing day was 1630 words.
• My smallest writing day was 76 words. (Let's be honest - I barely tried that day. It was a big day and I was drifting off to sleep before I remembered I hadn't written, and I didn't want to break the streak. But I'll allow it.)
• I wrote 11 fiction pieces - four are complete. I have ideas on how to finish 3 others. The rest... who knows! I'll have to look them back over after some time away.