Forget your kid's recommended summer reading list. Put this Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School (MVMMS) favorite on yours: "Freak" by Marcella Fleishman Pixley. On Wednesday, May 26, the Carlisle resident, author, and middle school teacher spoke to more than 300 eighth graders as part of MVMMS's "Author in Residence" Program, a revamped version of the former "Writer's Week."

Pixley's book is a fictionalized story, based upon her own experience being bullied in Massachusetts in the early 1980s. The subject held the teens in rapt attention.  Unfortunately, it's still a timely topic today, given the recent national attention on the recent death of South Hadley high school student Phoebe Prince, who committed suicide after relentless bullying. As Pixley told the more than 300 students over a series of one-hour sessions, "I think the word 'bullying' is overused. I think 'isolation' captures it better."

She recounted her own experience. "I remember going from my wonderful middle school in Newton," she told the quietly captivated teens, "where I was considered 'quirky and cool,' to high school, where I wasn't."

A large screen in front of the conference room projected an oversized picture of her as a teen. "See my face," she directed. "I was being my own, strong self. But I had nowhere to sit. I'd sit near three other girls. They'd be laughing. Talking. Then they'd shut up, and turn their backs on me."

She read a long excerpt from her book. Most of the teens had read, even re-read the book. Without being preachy, the diminutive teacher/writer had an open conversation with the students about their experiences with bullying, or as she emphasizes, isolated. At the end, many of the students came up to tell her their story and thank her for telling hers.

"We found that 'Writer's Week' focused too much on journalists," said Rachel Gaines, an eighth grade English teacher for the past three years at MVMMS. "The journalists were good. Really good. Don't get me wrong. And while many of our kids might be likely to become journalists, what those speakers discussed was distant from what we were studying ... topics like the world of publishing. They don't need to know that. We wanted a closer link to their actual studies."

Two years ago, the decision was made to put the program into the English teachers' hands. "It was a joint decision," Gaines continued, "between the PTO, which had run the Writer's Week program, and the English department." 

The result? A recommendation to change from a week-long format that included a number of writers, to an approach that allowed each grade to bring in an author, or even a series of authors, on a subject (or subjects) mapped to the grade's curriculum. 

Now, each grade, six through eight, is responsible for selecting and inviting their authors and each grade gets equal funding. The newer model is more simple, requires less effort to coordinate, and most importantly, more closely ties with what students are studying. 

"We were given funding," Mrs. Gaines said, and told "'use it appropriately. Gear it towards the curriculum and spread it out over the year.'

"The great thing is, for example, the class can be reading a book about baseball. The teachers might decide to bring in an author who's written about the sport. The students get really engaged. There's less pomp and circumstance about bringing in the authors, but from a teacher's perspective, it's great!" she emphasized. "The talk is more integrated with the curriculum, versus pulling away from it."

In the case of Pixley, she was an easy find. Gaines had been re-reading "Freak" herself, than came upon by chance an article stating the author lived in Carlisle. 

"I nearly fell off my chair!" Gaines laughed. "The book is, by far, one of the most popular books for summer reading. And she lived nearby! So to invite her was a natural decision."

Any thoughts on how to follow up on this year's success?  "We're studying World War II and reading the diary of Anne Frank. If we could get an author who's written about WWII, or any war, and its effects, that'd be great."