by Carol Weston
Mom said, “Miss Sands told me she liked your poem.”
(Teachers tell each other everything.)
Mom added, “She said it was quite mature.”
“Mature?” Dad said. “The one about ‘The cats are all cute in Italy's boot’?”
“I wrote a new one,” I said, though to tell you the truth, I still like my old one every bit as much.
“You did?” Dad asked.
“Let's hear it,” Matt said.
Dad sat on my rocking chair, and Mom sat on my bed, and Matt and DogDog sat on the floor. Matt stuck out his hand, and I knew that meant he was ready to give the poem a thumbs-up (for good), a thumbs-down (for dog poop), or a thumbs-sideways (for so-so).
I read my poem.
I peeked over at Matt's hand.
He was giving me a big thumbs-up. DogDog was giving me a big paws-up. “I knew you could do it,” Matt said.
“Melanie, it's good,” Mom said, and I could tell she meant it.
Even Dad seemed sort of impressed. “When did you write it?”
“On the plane.”
“You're a good writer,” he said.
“Grazie,” I said.
Matt went back to his room, and Mom and Dad tucked me and Hedgehog in and kissed me good night.
“I'm proud of you, Precious,” Mom said.
“I'm proud of you too, Mellie,” Dad said.
I could tell they both meant it.
And you know what I just realized?
I'm proud of me three!
Writing is a solitary task, but it is incredible—or incredibile (In Cray Dee Bee Lay)—how many people helped me with Melanie's journey. I want to thank my nine fellow travelers to Italy: Emme, Elizabeth, Robert, David, Cynthia, Eric, Mark, Marybeth, and Leighton. IsAille grazie to my agent, Laura Peterson, and everyone at Knopf, especially Tracy Gates, Sarah Hokanson, and Simon Boughton. And heartfelt thanks to all the kids and grown-ups who kept me going—including David Nickoll, Vanessa and John Wilcox, Mary Lemons, Ed Abrahams, Elise Howard, Bonnie Beer, Katie Goldstein, Cathy Roos, James McMenamin, Warrie Price, Mimmola Girosi, Richard Firestone, Karen Lausa, Patty Dann, Evie Gurney, Matty Reategui, Helen Clougherty, Amber Gross, Ann Zeidner, Mike Wolmetz, Erin Arruda, David Roos, Marc and Charlie Aidinoff, and the Squam Lake Cousins. Thanks too to the helpful students at Trinity School, including Tara Rodman, Stephanie Jenkins, Leni Kirschenbaum, Sujata Gidumal, Anna Sakellariadis, Amanda Manocherian, and Ms. Jarecki's class of 2009.
This is Carol Weston's first novel. She has a B.A. in French and Spanish comparative literature from Yale and an M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury.
Carol Weston is the advice columnist for Girls’ Life magazine. Her other books include Girltalk: All the Stuff Your Sister Never Told You; For Girls Only: Wise Words, Good Advice; and Private and Personal: Questions and Answers for Girls Only.
As a girl, Ms. Weston kept diaries. As a teenager, she made a small fortune by baby-sitting. Once she had enough money to buy plane tickets, she began to travel. Now she and her husband and their two daughters take trips together. But they always love to come back home to New York City.
You can visit the author at her Web site: www.carolweston.com.
Copyright © 2000 by Carol Weston
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eISBN: 978-0-307-48380-5
June 2001
v3.0
