When I started writing about middle school students, I had no idea I'd end up writing a book about it. Sometimes the subject dictates the writer, and as I love teaching, that's just fine with me.
That means I am writing two books at once: Drinking from Oblivion, a novel about a boy who loses his memory after an accident, and Coming of Age in the Middle, about my day job. I get to spend my days guiding middle school students through the gauntlet of adolescence, and I've found that one of the best ways to do that is to take the path most travelled. Pip, Huck, Prince Hal, Emma...their bildungsroman, or coming of age stories, have been penned, and they offer a great road map. Coming of Age in the Middle is a guide, akin to David Denby's Great Books, to the books that should matter most to adolescents, such as Great Expectations, Henry IV, Part I, Emma, The Tempest, and many others.
So, as the subject of The Mill Yard moves away from the territory of my first book, The Education of a Flatlander, and toward a new book, Coming of Age in the Middle, I am excited to see where the subject will lead me. I am not sure if the Flatlander posts will continue, but in the meantime, I have started a new blog, comingofageinthemiddle.blogspot.com.
