By Jane Mack
For Variety

CHILDREN and teens encounter life with a fresh approach. Everything is new to them. From the time a child takes her first step or says his first word, he is experimenting, testing the world, collecting data, processing it, and reaching conclusions. Children are hard-wired to succeed in their explorations. We have had generations of natural selection that culled traits that help us, with bigger brains and talents designed for survival.
But we also need the programming to go with the hard-wiring. And we have generations of traditions that help us with that, too. Tales, legends, and stories of all ilk are part of our historical routines that promote success in dealing with life’s challenges.
The storyteller has been an honored member of the community from time immemorial. Recounting exploits helps everyone learn what is successful, and what is valued by society. In our modern world, people share their failures as well. We have maxims to promote this sharing, like misery loves company and a trouble shared is trouble halved.
For children who come at each new experience with only their limited prior knowledge, reading and listening to stories can provide invaluable help, an edge in the project of life.
Where do all these books come from? Where do the stories that resonate with our children live? Perhaps in you. November is National Novel Writing Month. Check it out at www.nanowrimo.org If you have stories to tell, whether they’re happy exploits or more in the misery category, now is your chance to join the millennia of tradition and get your tales on paper (or disk). There are very few rules: you don’t need a plot to start. You just need to be willing to write, or try to write, 50,000 words during November. You can choose genre fiction like mystery, romance, western, sci-fi or fantasy. You can write for children or young adults. You can write adult and even x-rated material. Choose literary if you want to revel in the beauty of language. You don’t even have to write in English, choose any language you want. Anyone can join, and believe it or not, children under 12 years old have written novels as part of NaNoWriMo in previous years! The purpose is to get your story written. You can work on improving it, editing or rewriting as needed to make it better, later. This is a student project that any of us can do, as students of life.
Now, here are two new books that use humor to show us children tackling new enterprises. We can all learn some attitude from these!
JUNIE B., FIRST-GRADER: ALOHA-HA-HA, by Barbara Park, illustrated by Denise Brunkus (Random House, 2006). Junie B. Jones finally comes to the Pacific. In this story, Junie B. gets to tell her classmates about her unexpected trip, but then she must deal with the hoighty-toighty Lucille, whose condescension hurts. When Junie B. takes her very first plane ride, reality bumps up against her expectations. Life on land at the snazzy hotel, with its swimming pool, doesn’t quite match her imagination, either. June B. documents the entire trip with a disposable camera, but as each planned event veers off course, she finds it more and more difficult to keep going.
Denise Brunkus once again provides illustrations that add to the fun. Junie B.’s flotation devise, a parrot, is my favorite detail. Junie B. is not a cool kid, and given her stubborn streak and penchant for doing odd things, she may even be considered dorky! But she is a child with her own personality and approach to life, and this book is another example of how she uses her own talents to succeed. Don’t miss this Junie B. book, it’s hilarious. (Ages 5 -10).
PROJECT MULBERRY, by Linda Sue Park (Clarion, 2005).Although her parents are from Korea, Julia Song wants to be just a normal American kid. When it comes time to do a project for “Work, Grow, Give, Live!” Club, affectionately called the Wiggle Club by the kids in Plainfield, Illinois, Julia wants to choose one that is totally American. So she’s upset and confused when her partner, Patrick, enthusiastically adopts Julia’s mother’s idea of growing silkworms. That might be even more Korean than kimchee, which Julia hates.
Julia grasps onto hope for all the possible ways the project can be derailed. And the lack of mulberry trees in Plainfield seems to be the best one. As Julia and Patrick search for the tree that will sustain their silkworms, they find more to think about, including how Koreans and black Americans view each other. There are more surprises in store for Julia, too, as the project unfolds. For readers, there is a lot to learn and discover, not only about silkworms and life in America, but about the universal benefit of friendship, given and received. (Ages 9+)