Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

1.  So much fun!
2.  Those kids were all in.  I did love my small-town high school, but it had neither the numbers nor the priorities to make something like that happen.
3.  I have awesome in-laws, which hey! I already knew.
4.  I did NOT know that in the Broadway version, the reporter is a)female and b)Pulitzer’s daughter.  That was a little weird.
5.  Also less believable, but possibly more fun for a high school crowd?
6.  Some friends from our neighborhood ALSO had cousins in it.  It’s a small musical world out there.
7.  My 6-year-old son was bored, as I suspected he might be.  His very favorite, most adored cousin was in it, though, so I’m not sure he would have handled being left behind at Grandma’s with his little sister; it’s just that “Newsies” is really not a story geared towards first graders.
8. He fell asleep in my arms towards the end, which doesn’t happen anymore.  A moment to treasure as he keeps growing up.
9.  My 12-year-old nailed the “which song will be stuck in our heads as we’re leaving” prediction.  I thought for sure it would be “Carrying the Banner” or “Seize the Day”, but nope.  “King of New York” won out.
10.  Oh, the energy!  I miss being part of a performance.
11.  Watching my older daughters and their 10-year-old cousin run around and get autographs from kid after kid was, quite simply, adorable.  And I’ll bet the admiration in their eyes made those high school performers feel about 10 feet tall.
12.  Totally worth it–even given the overtired drama we were still having tonight.  Go see for yourselves!

Have you read Svetlana Chmakova’s Berrybrook Middle School books?  I went in to the first one not knowing how I was going to like it, but Awkward proved to be excellent and Brave was as good or possibly even better.  Crush came out this fall and finally came in at our local library a week or two ago; I wasn’t sure how much of an enjoyable plot the premise would provide, but I shouldn’t have doubted Chmakova.  While Raina Telgemeier’s Drama just made me desperately glad that I was OUT OF JUNIOR HIGH, Crush involved me in the characters and felt relatable for me as well as my two older girlies.  That might be due to the personality of the protagonist–Jorge is likable and self-confident in the kinds of ways that make him a good friend and his own person–but I also think it’s the kind of story being told.  Drama works for its audience in a wholly different kind of way; Crush is relatable for just about everybody.  I didn’t actually know what I wanted from a book called Crush, to be honest with you, but really, this was better than I could have imagined.  Each book in Chmakova’s group is fully capable of standing alone, but if you haven’t read them all, you should absolutely do it–they’re ALL fantastic!  In the meantime, a fourth book hasn’t been announced yet, but my girlies and I are hoping!