Listen to “Amy Pollack Authors Coming of Age book” on Spreaker.
“Pollack’s titular hero shines; she’s likable and relatable, an even blend of relatable worries and drama-queen moments…. An endearing, plucky girl endures and overcomes in this absorbing quick read.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Ever since she was in fourth grade – back in 1960 – Amy Meislin Pollack was writing and telling stories about a character named Jelly Bean. She never stopped telling those stories, sharing them with her students over a teaching career that spanned 40+ years. She shared them with her three children when they were younger – and then with her seven grandchildren. Now her stories have been made available to everyone with the recent publishing of two coming-of-age books intended for middle-graders, The Adventures of Jelly Bean and The Further Adventures of Jelly Bean.
“My books touch upon topics of friendship, popularity, death, race, drugs, alcohol, feeling neglected, family issues, and the types of things many kids today are confronting as they look to find their way in an ever-changing world,” says Pollack.
The Adventures of Jelly Bean and The Further Adventures of Jelly Bean are the stories of a fourth-grader who faces challenges that just about all children her age can recognize. Her parents don’t approve of her favorite friend in the whole world. She has trouble getting along with the brother who is closest in age to her. The uncle she loves so much is about to marry the most awful woman she could ever imagine, and the girl who used to be her best friend has turned on her. Jelly Bean faces these and other stumbling blocks, including: the difficulties in achieving and maintaining popularity and how important having certain friends should be to her; difficulties inherent in relationships with various friends and family members; and learning how to make decisions on her own. In these first two books of my middle-grade series, Jelly Bean comes to understand that much of life is trial and error, and that the only constant in life is that it is always changing.
Pollack is available to discuss the following:
Why coming-of-age stories are always needed for children.
What parents can do when they have strong disagreements with their children.
Why some kids need help making friends and dealing with issues of popularity.
The dialogues she hopes to see people launch into as a result of her books.
Solid generational advice that still holds true for our youth confronting challenges.
What parents need to know about raising healthy and successful kids today.
How grandparents and parents can help kids navigate the problems of growing up today.
Why a retired teacher of four decades and a grandma of seven recently took to publishing her middle-grade fiction after developing the story 60 years ago.
About The Adventures of Jelly Bean:
What if the start to your day was falling into the toilet, which caused you to miss your carpool, that in turn caused you to get to school late, that ultimately caused you to miss getting one of the decent parts in the upcoming Thanksgiving play? That is exactly what happens to fourth-grader Jelly. Bean on the day we first meet her. Things only go downhill from there and no one at home seems to have much time for her. Except Roger-Over, her beloved dog.
About The Further Adventures of Jelly Bean:
Jelly Bean in the continuation of her adventures as she seeks solutions to the challenges that confronted her in book 1. Michael, her oldest brother, has dropped out of school and joined the Marines, which usurps much of her parents’ attention. Kylie, the new girl in school, faces a medical emergency. And Jelly Bean is still forbidden from going to her best friend’s house.
She has to decide how to deal with these dilemmas and more. Along the way she learns about love, death, pain, relationships, the difference between right and wrong and the value of friendship. See the world through the eyes of this forthright fourth-grader as she discovers two truths about life – that it is always complicated, and always changing.
5-Star Amazon Reviews:
“Understanding a young girl’s feelings, capturing her mind’s world in a fun, loving way. This debut novel will win the hearts of school children because they will relate, feel heard and laugh along the way.” *****
“I am so glad I was with my grandchildren (11 & 12 years old, boy and girl) when they both read the book! They had planned on sharing the book by reading one chapter then letting the other read one…but they had such trouble giving up the book!! Each chapter simply made them want to continue on!” *****
“Bought this for my 12-year-old granddaughter. She read it easily, and had a good time following the stories. Beautiful, fun illustrations.” *****
GoodNewsLetter: Happy World Water Day, March 22, Let’s all work together to become the waves in the solution for water