Free Simon Says by Elaine Marie Alphin Page A

There's so much of me in Alan's story that I don't really know what an outside reader would make of it I know what I want them to make of it—I want them to nod and see themselves in it, and I want them to think about themselves differently than they had before. A writer shows his reader things he hadn't known before, not just so the reader can say, "Sure, that's how it is," but so the reader can think about those things from a new perspective. That's what I'm showing them: a new perspective on playing the game.

    February 16 (Freshman Year)

    When Mr. Adler said he wanted to speak to me first thing this morning, he sounded so serious I wondered if Jeffs English teacher could have told him I'd written Jeffs paper on Tom Stoppard's plays. But it was about
The Eye of the Storm.
He'd already finished reading it, and he was blown away (couldn't resist!). Totally. He wants to give it to this agent he knows, and he thinks it's going to be
published
I'm stunned. I mean-that's what I wanted. But still-it's a long way from dreaming something to seeing it really happen.
    But Mr. Adler is thrilled, because the teachers all give each other credit when one of them mentors a student who succeeds. And they usually have to wait until a kid's a senior, or at least a junior, to start bragging. So he's going to get
credit for mentoring me and maybe getting me published as a freshman! Fine with me. And he likes me all the more for thanking him and letting him think I believe he had something important to do with it Maybe he did.
    At lunchtime I called my mom to tell her the good news, and she was satisfied-not shrieking and everything, just satisfied, like it was the very least of what she's been expecting all along. "I knew everything I sacrificed for you was worth it," she told me, and her voice sounded more peaceful than triumphant But that's fine with me. This is just going to be the start.
    Now I've got this idea for an essay on writing that I want to submit to the student journal,
Ventures.
I think they'll take it Maybe the next step would be to get on staff there. I'm really doing it!

    Spring Break, April 17 (Freshman Year)

    This is better than all the chocolate rabbits and foil-wrapped marshmallow eggs piled high in a fantasy Easter basket! Mr. Adler called me at home. The agent he got placed
The Eye of the Storm!
No joke! Fifteen (just), and I'm going to have a major publishing house publish my novel! My parents are delighted. This time Mom did start shrieking. I'm going to dedicate the book to Mom and Dad-they should really like that.
    Everybody wants to celebrate. My parents were planning this Easter picnic-now they're turning it into a party announcing the book, and Mr. Adler is planning a big party for the writing arts department as soon as we all get back to Whitman. I called Ben, and we're planning our own celebra
tion of the contract Suddenly I'm a celebrity, and the book isn't even out yetl But Mr. Adler said something about fast-tracking publication so it'll come out early next spring, right after everybody gets back to school from Christmas break.
T HE N EW Y ORK T IMES
    F EBRUARY 6
    by Alvin Pierce
    The Eye of the Storm
by Graeme Brandt. 223 pages.
    In these confusing times it is astounding to discover an author who dares to offer explanations for modern Americans, and their mental peccadilloes, without embarrassment or apologies. It is more astounding still when the author is a boy. Newcomer Graeme Brandt is just that fifteen, and he has presented young readers with an imperfect but nevertheless impressive first novel.
    It is as if a surgeon took his scalpel and carved out the very core of our youth, then exposed with painful clarity exactly what keeps today's kids going. There is no gentleness in Brandt's language or theme; everything is diamond sharp and uncompromising in the terrifying voice of matter-of-fact high school student Alan Travis.
    The Eye of the Storm
is a character study that traces Alan's rise from