Today is a two-fer. Read The Recess Queen and the companion Worst Best Friend for a double-dose of frienship!
One of the biggest challenges O’Neill faced in her professional teaching career was aboss who bullied her and undermined her efforts. O’Neill wondered if there was a
way to get a bully to stop being a bully. She started writing The Recess
Queen (Scholastic Press) in 1992, but couldn’t come up with an answer to
her question, so she filed the story in a drawer for several years. When one of
her nieces reached playground age in 1999, O’Neill observed that she was a
people magnet because she asked kids to play with her and offered unconditional
friendship. O’Neill realized this was the answer to her problem in The
Recess Queen–model her character, Katie Sue, after her niece, and have
Katie Sue offer to be friends with the bully. [Excerpted from my Alexis O’Neill profile.]
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