 |
Parents
give up on them. Teachers can’t reach them. Often they
can’t even love themselves. Instant-message middle-schoolers
“Whassup?” and they’ll type back
“NMJC” — “Not much just
chillin’.” But it’s a lie, a front, a
shrug as old as adolescent angst. Nobody just chills in middle school.
That’s where everything happens. Sixth grade takes in
children and eighth grade spits out teenagers. Their bodies and psyches
morph through the most radical changes since infancy, leaving them torn
between anxiety and ardor, dependence and autonomy, conformity and
rebellion.
Not Much Just Chillin’ is an up-to-date anthropology of the critically formative middle school years. Linda Perlstein spent a year immersed in the lunchroom, classrooms, hearts, and minds of a group of suburban middle schoolers and emerged with this pathbreaking account. The book follows five representative kids through the school year as they study, flirt, argue, rollerskate, instant-message and expain what they think and feel. NMJC offers a trail map to the baffling no-man’s-land between child and teen, the time when children don’t want to grow up, and so badly do.
The book follows five children. Eric Ellis ended seventh grade striving to please, but by eighth grade realizes there’s not much room in his life to aim for A’s, and that it is in his power to ignore his schoolwork. Jackie Taylor, who not long ago invented a inoculation against boy germs, now obsesses over serial crushes, recounting soap-operatic plotlines mystifying to everyone who thinks you actually have to talk to a boy to be his girlfriend. Elizabeth Ginsburg, who used to ask her parents for help with just about everything, suddenly shrugs off their suggestions and invariably answers “Nothing” to the daily question, “What did you do at school today?” Jimmy Schissel is living through uncomfortable alterations to the way his body works—from sleeping to eating to thinking to sitting to running—and wonders what is normal and what comes next. Lily Mason is experiencing a new sixth-grade absorption in where she stands among her friends, such that to peek underneath her easygoing persona is to witness a constant effort to fit in, lest she drop a notch in the eyes of Mia Reilly.
Farrar, Straus & Giroux released Not Much Just Chillin' in hardcover in September 2003, and it’s now in its eighth paperback printing from Ballantine Books.
Buy
Not Much Just Chillin' from Amazon.com
PRAISE FOR NOT MUCH JUST CHILLIN’:
The
New York Times
“The
children Ms. Perlstein follows are at once lovable, frustrating,
contradictory—and
real. ... Chillin’
may not make parents feel more comfortable about early adolescence’s
arrival in their household, but it will certainly make them more
prepared.”
Richard
W. Riley, former
U.S. secretary of education
“Not Much Just Chillin’
takes the reader to a mystical place—the
changing world of the middle schooler—never
before visited in this personal way. Every parent, teacher, principal,
and friend of an adolescent can gain useful insights from this book.
Linda Perlstein has done a great service for education by spending a
year with these boys and girls in their classrooms and homes, and then
eloquently chronicling their complicated lives.”
The
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Deliciously observed ... Perlstein’s
interpretation of
what’s going on
inside their hormone-charged world is information every
educator and parent should have. ... A fascinating and important
book.”
Publishers
Weekly Daily
“Perlstein stays out of the way of her
middle schoolers, letting them tell their stories in their own voices.
... The magic of Not Much Just Chillin’
is Perlstein's ability to echo
artfully the language of her young subjects even during sections of
exposition. ... More practically, the book offers a telling look at the
social and psychological development of early adolescents and includes
a discussion of brain research that is especially fascinating. Whether
read on sociological grounds or for sheer entertainment, it’s
the kind
of book that will have you mentally revisiting your own middle school
days.”
Washingtonian
“Middle school was a tumultuous ride the
first time around, but if you’re
itching to relive it, here’s
the
perfect hall pass. ... To readers with any investment in middle-school
kids, Perlstein is a godsend. ... She’s
not shy about dispensing
parenting advice. But moms and dads would probably be wise to follow
it. After all, she’s
done her homework.”
Chicago
Tribune
“In a move that must have put her sanity in
danger, author Linda Perlstein dove headfirst into the intricate social
and emotional networks that make up the modern American middle school.
A fascinating peek inside the mind of adolescents, her book provides
parents with what is most likely a shocking, but informative, look at
what goes on behind those ‘I
want to be alone’
closed doors and in
those all-lowercase, acronym-laced Instant Messenger sessions that last
hours.”
The
New Yorker
“The sixth to eighth graders she interviews
have complex opinions on justice, religion, and mortality—while
adults
fret over whether video games create irrational fears of violence,
students formulate sophisticated responses to events such as the
terrorist attacks of September 11th.”
Rachel
Simmons, author
of Odd Girl Out
“Linda Perlstein has managed
to embed herself in the lives and minds of middle schoolers, thoroughly
capturing both the major issues and the minutiae that govern the couse
of these crucial years. A terrific read for parents and other adults
who need to navigate along with them.”
NEA
Today
“The
kids in Not Much Just Chillin’
speak with a candor that will
alternately shock, fascinate, and inform both parents and teachers. ...
The slang and fashions change, but the inhabitants remain as vulnerable
and confused as ever.”
The
Wall Street Journal
“I
don’t
know the name of the guy who invented middle school, but he sure
had a wicked sense of humor. ... Linda Perlstein’s Not Much Just
Chillin’
paints a vivid picture of the difficulty of the task we’ve
set
for ourselves.”
School
Library Journal
“Deft
writing punctuated by well-documented observations bring these people
and the depths of their challenges to life. In this subculture of
suffocating peer pressure, burgeoning sexuality, obsessive gaming, gay
bashing, and ‘IM’ing,
no one emerges unscathed. Readers will emerge
more knowledgeable, more understanding, and more than a little
concerned for the future of all of us.”
More about the book:
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
