Ju-Sa-Lil: 2nd Edition

Because Julia starts writing new books before she has even finished her old ones, and because she writes SO MANY of them, she frequently loses track of the books she has already started on.  She recently discovered that she had no idea where her masterpiece creation, "Meet Ju-Sa-Lil," had gone to.  Instead of conducting a thorough search, Julia simply decided to start over and re-write it.

The second edition of "Meet Ju-Sa-Lil" is similar only in that it still features Ju-Sa-Lil and her family living inside the Earth, with other plot points being completely altered.  (I'm guessing what with all the other books Julia has written in between, she couldn't actually remember what had happened in her first edition of "Ju-Sa-Lil."  In this new copy, Ju-Sa-Lil ventures outside of the inside of the Earth and befriends Citey, who is human.  Or, as the Inside-Earth people call them, "umins." 

And speaking of Inside-Earth speech:

Chapter 2: GOING TO SCHOOL
"The next day, Ju-Sa-Lil met Citey's sister Alona.  'Sophie's our shiter to,' said Alona.  She was two years ol.  'Isn't Sophie with Tala?"

I'm hoping that Julia simply misspelled "sister," rather than "shiter" being the futuristic term for "sister."

Throughout the course of this book, Ju-Sa-Lil accompanies Citey to school in the "Umin" world, only to discover that attending school is poisonous to Inside-Earth folk.  The tell-tale sign is a poisonous blue mark on Ju-Sa-Lil's hand, and her discovery causes her to have a HUGE fight with Citey, as Ju-Sa-Lil blames Citey for the poisoning. 

Not to worry, however; the book doesn't end before the best friends make up once again.  I have a feeling Julia started getting tired of writing this book, because the whole make-up and resolution to the conflict is awfully abrupt.

The final passage of the book is as follows:

"Later that day Ju-Sa-Lil went to tell Citey something.  'Citey,' she said.  'I can't go to school with you becuse I'll get poisend.  That's just the way things work.'  'And that's the way things work with best friends."

Awwww.  What a sweet ending.  BEST FRIENDS FOREVER!

Julia finished this second version of "Meet Ju-Sa-Lil" this morning, and quickly began work on the next book in the series, "Ju-Sa-Lil Learns a Lesson."  All she was able to complete before school was the Table of Contents, but let me assure you that the chapter titles look reeeeally promising:

Table Of Contenc

1. The Worth Fighting Over Doll
2. Family Love
3. Making Ornimints
4. More Then Someone Could Ask For


I don't know about you, but I'm *particularly* excited to read "The Worth Fighting Over Doll!"


Madeleine has not lost track of any of her books, but she DID talk to me about something that she can no longer find.

MADELEINE: Mama?  My leg HURTS right here.
ME: Is there a bug bite there?
MADELEINE: Well Mama.  There WAS a bug bite that I got BEFORE, but now it's DISSINGAPPEAR.

Well, if it's dissingappear, I guess it's not worth my inningspect her hurting leg.  I probably won't be able to see anything anyway.

And on a final Madeleine note, after a weekend's worth of attempting to get Madeleine to smile for Elf family group photos, we Elf shiters finally threw in the towel and decided to just "smile" like Madeleine instead:

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!