When I Was Your Age, Volume One Read online

“This is wonderful, La,” Miss Rose said. “Would you like to read it to the class?”

  La shook her head, cringing, pressing her back against hard wood and metal.

  “I really think you should,” said Miss Rose.

  Chelsea Fox said, “I’d love to hear your story.” She said it so sweetly that for a moment La believed her. But then she saw Chelsea glance over at Amanda Warner, and a silent laugh swelled the air between them.

  “Go ahead,” Miss Rose said.

  La couldn’t breathe. She felt like throwing up.

  But when she started to read, something happened. She forgot about Chelsea Fox, Amanda Warner, and everyone else in the class. The words La and Blue had written cast their spell — even over La. She could smell the perfume and bittersweet wildflowers; she could hear Joni Mitchell’s For the Roses playing softly.

  When La was finished, she looked up. Everyone was silent, watching her.

  “That was beautiful,” Miss Rose finally said.

  The bell rang, and everyone scattered. La went into the fluorescent-lit, brown and beigy-pink hallway. Her heart was beating fast but in a different way this time. She felt as if she had physically touched everyone in the room, as if she had played her favorite song for Miss Rose and lifted an open, tear-shaped bottle of fragrance to Chelsea Fox’s face.

  “Your mom sounds like she was cool,” Chelsea said, catching up with La. “My mom isn’t like that. She doesn’t spend time with me except to go shopping and stuff.” La looked into Chelsea’s blue eyes. The pupils were big and dark. There was no laughter in them now. La nodded.

  Chelsea tossed her hair and ran to catch up with her friends.

  When La got home, she ran inside to tell Blue. Her father wasn’t on the couch watching TV where La expected him. She heard his typewriter keys and peeked into his office. The windows were open and Vivaldi was playing; he had a cup of coffee at his fingertips.

  “Daddy,” La said.

  When she handed him the story, his eyes changed.

  “It’s about Mom,” La said, but she knew he knew.

  “I’m writing something about her too,” he said. He held out his hand, and she went to him. He sat up and kissed her forehead.

  “Thank you, honey.” He looked as though he hadn’t slept or eaten for days. But he took off his glasses then, and La saw two small images of herself swimming in the tears in his eyes.

  La went to her room to tell Blue. In the closet, there were only clothes and shoes and shadows now.

  “I wrote ‘Blue’ based on certain aspects of my childhood, although much of it is very far from my reality. I lived in a house like the one described in the story, and I had an active imagination that I used in my writing as a way to feel connected to others. The main difference between my life and the story is that my parents were always together and very supportive of me.

  It was their love and encouragement that influenced my decision to become a writer. I was at first hesitant to present the parents in ‘Blue’ in a negative light, since the story was meant to be at least semi-autobiographical, but I made certain choices because I wanted to add drama to the piece. My father, who is no longer living, always told me to write whatever I needed to write and not to be afraid or inhibited as an artist.”

  MARY POPE OSBORNE is the author of many highly acclaimed novels for young readers as well as picture books, middle-grade biographies, and collections of myths and fairy tales. Her works include the Magic Tree House series, Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters, the Spider Kane mystery series, and the Tales from the Odyssey series. She worked on and traveled with Magic Tree House: The Musical, which was written by her husband, Will Osborne. She and her husband live in New York City.

  JAMES HOWE has written more than seventy books for children and young adults, including the Sebastian Barth mystery series, the Pinky and Rex series, and such highly acclaimed picture books as Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores and There’s a Monster Under My Bed. Best known for his award-winning Bunnicula series about a vampire rabbit, he received the E. B. White Read Aloud Award for Houndsley and Catina, the first book in a series. He is also the author of The Misfits and its three companion novels. James Howe lives in New York State.

  KATHERINE PATERSON left China just before the United States entered into World War II. Since then she has lived all over the United States and in Japan. She has received numerous awards for her writing, including National Book Awards for The Master Puppeteer and The Great Gilly Hopkins, as well as Newbery Medals for Jacob Have I Loved and Bridge to Terabithia. Katherine Paterson is vice president of the National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance. In 2013, she received the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children. Her most recent works include The Flint Heart, written with her husband, John Paterson, and The Day of the Pelican. She lives in Vermont.

  WALTER DEAN MYERS is a pioneer of young adult fiction and is considered one of the preeminent writers for children. His novels about urban teens and the challenges they face have won him dozens of awards, including the first Michael L. Printz Award for Monster, five Coretta Scott King Awards, and two Newbery Honors. He wrote Autobiography of My Dead Brother, a National Book Award Finalist, and Jazz, an American Library Association Notable Children’s Book, illustrated by his son, Christopher Myers. He was the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King–Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement and a recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults. Walter Dean Myers passed away in 2014.

  SUSAN COOPER was born and raised in England and has written books for children and young adults, a Broadway play, and several screenplays, two of which earned Emmy nominations. Of her many books, the best known are the five fantasy novels in the young adult series The Dark Is Rising, which have won numerous awards, including the Newbery Medal. Her most recent books include Ghost Hawk and The Magic Maker, a biography of John Langstaff, creator of the Christmas Revels. Susan Cooper lives in Massachusetts.

  NICHOLASA MOHR was born in Manhattan’s El Barrio and raised in the Bronx. She has written numerous books for children and young adults, including Nilda; El Bronx Remembered, winner of the American Book Award and a National Book Award Finalist; and Growing Up Inside the Sanctuary of My Imagination, a memoir. She has been honored with a number of prestigious awards, including the Raúl Juliá Award by the Puerto Rican Family Institute. Nicholasa Mohr moved back to El Barrio, where she continues to write books and plays for people of all ages.

  REEVE LINDBERGH is the daughter of aviator Charles Lindbergh and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and has written many picture books and adult novels. Her books include Johnny Appleseed; The Awful Aardvarks Shop for School; View from the Air: Charles Lindbergh’s Earth and Sky; The Circle of Days; Homer, the Library Cat; and My Little Grandmother Often Forgets, published by Candlewick Press. She received the Redbook Children’s Picture Book Award for her books Benjamin’s Barn and The Midnight Farm. She lives in Vermont with her husband, their children, and an assortment of animals.

  AVI has written more than seventy books for all ages and across genres. He is the author of the Newbery Honor Books The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Nothing But the Truth; the Newbery Medal winner Crispin: The Cross of Lead; The Fighting Ground, which won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction; and two sequels to Crispin titled Crispin: At the Edge of the World and Crispin: The End of Time. Avi lives in Colorado with his wife.

  FRANCESCA LIA BLOCK is best known for her groundbreaking Weetzie Bat novels, many of which have been named as American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults. She also received the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Lifetime Achievement Award. Her works include Teen Spirit, Love in the Time of Global Warming, and Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur: A Mythological Dating Guide. Francesca Lia Block lives in California.

  AMY EHRLICH, the editor of When I Was Your Age, volumes one and two, notes that “writing begins wi
th observation. The authors in this collection, like all children, felt things deeply. But they also were able to observe their feelings and therefore to remember them as well. Those memories are a writer’s most durable tool.” Amy Ehrlich has been an editor and a writing teacher and is the author of more than twenty-five books for young readers. She lives in Vermont.

  VOLUME ONE

  Introduction copyright © 1996 by Amy Ehrlich

  “All-Ball” copyright © 1996 by Mary Pope Osborne

  “Everything Will Be Okay” copyright © 1996 by James Howe

  “Why I Never Ran Away From Home” copyright © 1996 by Katherine Paterson

  “Reverend Abbott and Those Bloodshot Eyes” copyright © 1996 by Walter Dean Myers

  “Muffin” copyright © 1996 by Susan Cooper

  “Taking a Dare” copyright © 1996 by Nicholasa Mohr

  “Flying” copyright © 1996 by Reeve Lindbergh

  “Scout’s Honor” copyright © 1996 by Avi

  “Blue” copyright © 1996 by Francesca Lia Block

  Cover photograph copyright © 2000 by Christina Angarola

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.

  First electronic edition 2015

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 95004820

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