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Back to School

 

As September approaches, may I remind you of a minor classic, Beverly Cleary's "Muggie Maggie":

After her first day of third grade, Maggie Schultz jumped off the school bus when it stopped at her corner. "Bye, Jo Ann," she called to the girl who was her best friend, sometimes. "See you tomorrow." Maggie was happy to escape from sixth-grade boys who called her a cootie and from fourth-grade boys who insisted the third grade was awful, cursive writing hard, and Mrs. Leeper, the teacher, mean.

Just to state the obvious: Nearly every sentence in this paragraph is special. Maggie doesn't simply get off the bus; she jumps off. (We see that impulsivity once again, later, in the famous "Sorry So Sloppy" note.) Jo Ann is a best friend--but, note, she is a best friend only sometimes. Also, school is hell; if you're not dodging gender-obsessed sixth-grade boys, you're contending with the fourth graders, who feel a need to mythologize their own third-grade suffering. (You also get some parallel structure. Third grade: awful. Cursive: hard. Teacher: mean.)

One day, we'll all have the chance to return to school buildings.

Finally: Let's note that "Muggie Maggie" isn't really even in the Cleary Canon. It's not "Beezus and Ramona." And it's still great.
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