Not yet.

I feel as though I have been absent from my life for a few weeks. I'm definitely moving forward (this is the weekend of change...new apartment, new borough, a wedding, new school year) but I feel so busy that I haven't really stopped to think about much.

In light of that I've been amusing myself with a little Young Adult fiction. For those of you not in education, those are books written specifically for middle/early high school students. (I did read "Everything is Illuminated" but I need a bit more time to think through that one...please read Jonathan Safron Foer, I beg of you)

The 8th grade distraction is called "Kiki Strike: Inside the Shadow CIty." It's about six 12 year old girls who stumble upon a secret city that is far underneath Manhattan. They are smart, adventurous and confident...

"To those of you who are sticklers for safety and approach life with all the caution of amateur beekeepers, I can offer no excuse for what I did then. I'll admit that a more mature human being would never have let her curiosity take control."

...exactly the kind of girls I want my students to read about, rather than all the "Clique" trash they usually read. I cannot wait to recommend it to my students.

Give me a week or so for some real thoughts. This weekend I'm travelling to Wyoming and I've packed "King Dork," "Swallows and Amazons" and Harry Potter en espanol, all young adult titles. Am I trying to avoid real life for a while? Yes.