"The Adventures of Jelly Bean" by Amy Pollack

You can't accuse Amy Pollack of rushing into print. Although she first had the idea of Jelly Bean, a fictional fourth-grader, back when she was in fourth grade herself (1960), it wasn't until Pollack had completed more than 40 years of teaching at every level--primary, middle, high school, and college--that she published a story that's now a series. The Still Further Adventures of Jelly Bean is the third in the series, a coming-of-age adventure that allows Pollack to explore issues such as friendship, popularity, death, race, drugs, and alcohol. "My books are about a forthright fourth-grader who confronts issues and challenges many children her age confront as well, and how she learns about friendship, relationships with family members, friends, teachers, and others; popularity, death, love, and what is important in life," said Pollack. "Much of what she learns is by trial and error – and her reactions to the results are much of what propels my story along," she said. Jelly Bean faces problems that fourth-graders can relate to. Her parents don’t approve of her favorite friend in the whole world. She has trouble getting along with the brother who is closest in age to her. The uncle she loves so much is about to marry the most awful woman she could ever imagine, and the girl who used to be her best friend has turned on her. Has school changed over the years? "The times have definitely changed. Many families are also different than they were, so that many of my students had little or no support at home. For one example, until I taught at the high school where I ended up teaching, I had never known (much less heard) of an 'emancipated minor' (a fifteen- year-old who lived on his own, and whose parents had both abandoned him). That would have been unheard of when I was growing up. I also had some (high school) students who were intelligent, but who were non-readers," said Pollack. Fear not, Jelly Bean makes it to the fifth grade in Pollack's next installment, a book she said she's halfway through writing. One of the subjects tackled in the upcoming effort is the matter of bullying, she said. Aside from her extensive educational background, having three kids (now grown) and seven grandchildren provides Pollack with plenty of resources to use in her writing. "My granddaughter Hannah helped bring my story up to date by enlightening me that girls play flag football 'nowadays.' That's why Jelly Bean does," she said.