Middle school is full of (mostly) great memories for me. It wasn’t called middle school back then. It was called junior high, and I started at Wilkins Junior High School in sixth grade at the ripe old age of 11.

I have always been tall, but I reached my full height of 5’9″ that year and weighed a whopping 97 pounds. I was the definition of lanky and awkward and suffered seriously from what we called “tall girl syndrome.” In other words, I slouched. (Let’s be honest, I still slouch.) I was so skinny that my mother thought I had a tapeworm (true story) and took me to the doctor who told her I just had a really fast metabolism (that is not the case anymore—also true story). To add to the lankiness and awkwardness, I have very long legs.

One of my teachers was a kindred spirit in the tall and lanky department. Mr. Weidenhoefer taught drafting, and he became one of my favorite teachers, probably in part because he stopped calling me Nancy and started called me “Miss Green Legs” for the green bell bottoms I had back then (just “Legs” for short). He was young and cool and made drafting fun—giving us assignments like staring at 2.5cm on a ruler for a minute and then having to draw lines on a page in 2.5cm increments without measuring. If I hadn’t decided to study journalism, I seriously considered architecture. And to this day, I still remember that 2.5cm is just under an inch and can eyeball it pretty well.

Another of my favorite teachers was the exact opposite of Mr. Weidenhoefer. Mr. Marusarz taught science and reading. He was much shorter than I was, had a handlebar mustache, and used to hop up onto the lab desks and play golf with a yardstick and a crumpled piece of paper. He used to challenge us to read aloud by having us take turns reading. As soon as the reader made a mistake—any mistake, any stumble, any misspeak—he made a loud noise and the responsibility of reading passed to the next student exactly where the last student left off. When I broke my arm that year, he offered to let me have his “cool black” sling instead of my bland light green one.

In seventh grade, I had Mr. Kurivial for social studies. He had a thick mustache, although not a handlebar, and always wore a suit and tie. He was responsible for my most memorable field trip to Cantigny Park, where I have returned many times, including this past Labor Day weekend. When we were learning about the Constitution for the government exam, he told us we could get extra credit for memorizing the Preamble. A couple friends and I decided to go all out, and we didn’t just recite it in front of the class. We sang the complete version from the Schoolhouse Rock series.

It’s been 40 years since I graduated from middle school, and these memories are still vivid. I remember a lot of my teachers. Mr. Rose was my homeroom teacher. Mrs. Petkiewicz was teen living for three years. While we learned about hygiene in sixth grade, it was all girls in seventh and eighth grades learning about hair and makeup and skin care. Mrs. Newquist was my sixth-grade PE teacher, and she cried when she saw my parents at the open house after I broke my arm in her class because she was so diligent about safety.

I can tell you the name of every teacher I had from kindergarten to fifth grade as well. In fact, one of my second-grade teachers became a friend when we attended the same church years later. Teachers are crucially important to a child’s development along with that child’s education. They create memories and experiences. They make a difference.

A few years ago, I read Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt when our daughter read it in school. A five-star read, the story revolves around a girl with dyslexia who was greatly influenced by a teacher. I recently was contacted by a new author who saw that review and asked if I would be interested in reading and reviewing his book about a teacher who makes an impact in the life of a student starting at a new middle school. I’m so glad he did.

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Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐
4 Stars for Jam Sessions by Jerry Harwood

214 pages
Publication Date: March 22, 2020
I received a gift copy of this title from the author.

Publisher’s Description

Meet Phillip. His mom relocates him to a new school in the middle of the school year.

Things do not go well. Phillip lands himself a trip to the dean of student’s office when he tries to forge his mother’s signature. Maybe if he spelled her name correctly it would have gone better.  

Phillip also finds himself having more and more anxiety. And the song some bullies are singing is certainly not helping:

Phillip Willip, Puddin and Pie. 
Got a bad grade and made him cry.  

There is one class Phillip has that is going well. It is with Mr. Filter, who starts each day with a writing prompt. These “jam sessions” allow students to be creative and enjoy writing. Phillip writes about being a basketball on a soccer field. Another day he writes about receiving two dragon eggs in the mail, one for himself and one for a particularly cute girl.  

But will Phillip ever be able to make his real life go as well as his Jam Sessions?

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Main Characters:

• Phillip – the new kid in school, shy, awkward, prone to anxiety attacks
• Chuck – the school bully who tries (pretends?) to befriend Phillip
• Mr. Filter – English Language Arts teacher and starts every class with a writing prompt he calls a “jam session”
• Jaylan – a student who tends to wander the halls by himself singing an odd song and helps Phillip deal with his anxiety
• Mr. Lea – a therapist who also helps Phillip with his anxiety

Jerry Harwood’s first novel Jam Sessions would be an ideal read for kids starting around fourth grade, and even parents of kids getting ready to start middle school. This story of Phillip starts midyear in a new middle school after his mother packs them up in the middle of the night to escape an abusive husband. Phillip is shy and awkward and has a lot of anxiety about fitting in and immediately falls in with the wrong crowd because the school bully pretends to be nice and helpful but only succeeds in getting Phillip into trouble.

One of the key characters in the book is Mr. Filter, an English Language Arts teacher who has writing “jam sessions” at the beginning of each class. Students have eight minutes to write about a random topic from Mr. Filter’s imagination. They must write constantly for the entire eight minutes and must stop as soon as the eight minutes are up no matter how far they’ve gotten.

All of the students love the jam sessions, and Mr. Filter seems to be very good at understanding what’s going on in their minds based on what they’ve written. For example, Phillip’s first jam session about the day in the life of a basketball is all about the basketball being used as a soccer ball. Mr. Filter comments that Phillip must feel out of place, much like that basketball.

As Phillip goes through his first couple of weeks at his new school, he always looks forward to Mr. Filter’s class. He wants to do well. He doesn’t want to worry his mother. But he is full of anxiety with all of the changes in his life. Mr. Filter’s jam sessions help him to focus and help him to find his place in his new school.

This will be a very fast read for any adult, and I think it’s a valuable story that delves into bullying, the desire to fit in, overcoming anxiety, and finding your place. The only reason I made it four stars instead of five is that the dialog is a bit stilted, without using a lot of contractions that would make the flow smoother. The author intersperses the dialog with the word “like” because kids use that filler word a lot, but at the same time, he did not use a lot of contractions, so the dialog feels very formal, especially for a middle school.

Kudos to the author for enlisting a former student to do the illustrations. They add a nice touch.

Both parents and kids will enjoy this one. It’s a great book to read together.

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