Rachel Vail is the author of many popular novels for young
people, including the Justin Case series, the Friendship Ring series, Unfriended, and most recently, Well, That Was Awkward. In an interview with the KidsPost section of the Washington Post, Vail talks about the play that inspired her latest novel and the middle-school
experiences that helped inform it.
Like the 1897 French play “Cyrano de Bergerac,” Vail’s novel
Well, That Was Awkward features a
main character that tries to help a friend to further a romance. The problem, though, is that the love
interest is actually someone that the main character also likes.
Below are writing lessons for the classroom or for
individual writers ages 8 and up.
RE-IMAGINING A
CLASSIC: Classroom Discussion, Part 1: Talk
about how Vail reimagined a play with adult characters as a story about a group
of middle-school students in a contemporary school. Other writers have done this, too. For example, the movie “Clueless” in based on
Jane Austen’s Emma.
Classroom Writing,
Part 1: Choose a scene or chapter
from a book with adult characters, from a different time period. For older students, this might be a book that
the whole class has read. For younger
students, this might be a fairy tale like “Cinderella” or “Snow White.” Ask them to brainstorm changes they might
make. Encourage them to feel free to
switch characters’ genders. For example,
the evil queen in “Snow White” might be a vain football player or the prince in
Cinderella might be a girl who is a wealthy science geek with a lab and
Cinderella a poor guy eager to build his own robot.
Classroom Discussion,
Part 2: In the KidsPost interview, Vail is candid about her awkward
middle-school years and how those embarrassing moments have helped her to
create believable characters and situations that her readers can relate to.
Classroom Writing,
Part 2: Ask students to close their
eyes and imagine their middle-school characters in an awkward or embarrassing
situation. What embarrassing thing
happens to their middle-school Cinderella or prince? How do they react? Ask students to write their scenes. Ask for a few volunteers to read theirs
aloud. Hilarity may ensue!
Additional Resources
Rachel Vail’s website - http://www.rachelvail.com/
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