Catherine, Called Birdy , by Karen Cushman

In 1290, Catherine, a 13 year old girl, the daughter of a knight, is keeping a diary of her life at her parents’ manor house. Hilarious, moving, and surprisingly vulgar and violent, Catherine’s diary is a glimpse into life 718 years ago.

From the book:

“12th DAY OF SEPTEMBER
I am commanded to write an account of my days: I am bit by fleas and plagued by family. That is all there is to say.”

Fires in the Bathroom, by Kathleen Cushman

Well, this was kind of awful, I thought. It was aimed at teachers, with advice from high school students for how to relate and get better behaviour from them- for reasons I will not go into, I hoped that I might get some ideas for how to... well, I'm not getting into that!

But as well intentioned as it was, and as touching as some of the students comments were, it just seemed kind of useless to me. Most of the stuff in it was pretty high school teacher specific, and of that, a lot of it just reminded me that teenagers really are kind of aggravating and lack common sense. The kid who said if school was all about animals, she'd be interested, because she wants to be a vet, well, really? What about, um, kids who don't want to be vets? And obviously this girl will never be a vet if she doesn't get her head out of her...

Yeah. Anyway.