Julia Tells the Truth

In her ongoing quest to be just like her big sister, Madeleine sat down and wrote a "chapter book" today.  While you'll notice the words on each page are no more than a series of squiggles, with an occasional one-syllable word that Madeleine knows how to spell, you can rest assured that I got the REAL DEAL from the author herself on what is actually going on from page to page.

Take a look at:

Julia Tells the Truth
by Madeleine Rowe

(I'm sure that Julia's recent book, "Lydia Tells the Truth," had NO INFLUENCE WHATSOEVER over Madeleine choice of title.)


Pg. 1:

The way Madeleine "read" this page to me is as follows:
MADELEINE: (gasping sound), (release of air in a big sigh).  "Huh?"  I mean!: "What?"

We're off to a RIVETING start.


Pg. 2:

MADELEINE: It's Julia, and her hair grows LONGER.  (shouting) "Juliaaa!  Are you done organizing your bedroom?"  "In a miiiinute!"

I can see that the plot is going to unfold awfully slowly in this book.  Two pages in and we still have no idea what the heck is going on.


Pg. 3:

Madeleine forgot to make her swirly squiggles for words on this page.
MADELEINE: Oh!  Mama.  I forgot to write words.  So...this page is just a PICTURE.
ME: Well, can you just tell me what's going on so I understand what happens next in the story?
MADELEINE: So, Julia and Liza's mom, she's carrying her a pancake and bowl together, and she's looking at it, and she's smiling, and then she's like: (making an "O" mouth) and she says to Julia: "You're gonna need a make-over."  And she really does.  And she runs over and looks in the mirror and says: "AAAAAHHHHH!"

Okay.  NOW we're getting somewhere!  Julia needs a make-over.  What, oh what, will happen next??


Pg. 4:

MADELEINE: "Oooh, there's one, Mom!"  (Gasping) "Yeah!  There's one!  And it's carrying another one on its back!"
Mama?  Um, so, Mama?  This is Kit (pointing to the yellow girl) and that's her mom (pointing to the blue girl) and she put her clean dry wash-cloth over her hair and head so people wouldn't know it was her.

Oh.  Okay.  Apparently we're taking a momentary diversion away from Julia and her much-needed makeover to visit Kit and her Mom.  I'm not sure exactly what they're pointing out to each other, but whatever it is looks to be up in a tree, so I'm gonna guess squirrels?  Still not sure how this connects to Julia and her hair, but let's keep reading.


Pg. 5:

MADELEINE: So.  "Tell me the TRUTH!"  "So I used the Twitsie-Twits, and it grew my hair SO long it touched the ground!"  (sternly) "Tell the truth." (sighing in resignation) "Ooookay.  I think it just grew super-duper long when I wasn't looking, and when I looked back, it was all super-duper long.  I was just TOUCHING my hair."  (breaking out some sound effects): "Tk-tk-tk-tk-tk-tk-tk."  It's cause that was her MOM cutting her hair off, so she could have her hair more, like, shorter.

Ah-ha!  We are finally at the crux of the story, where Julia tells the truth just like the title suggests.  Who would have EVER thought it was so important to tell the truth about how her hair grew so long.  And to think that the truth was just that her hair grew long when she wasn't looking.  That's not a particularly exciting secret, if you ask me.  In fact, I would have to say Julia's mom is kind of a dunderhead if she doesn't understand that hair just grows unless you cut it.  I mean, when we were getting all into the Twitsie-Twit explanation, I thought, "ooh, here's something exciting.  What are Twitsie-Twits??  Are they magic??"  But then Julia went and revealed that to be a lie, and when she told the truth, the explanation was not nearly as exciting as Twitsie-Twits.

But there's still hope for this story to take off.  We have more pages yet to explore!

Pg. 6:

MADELEINE: Chapter Ten.  "Hi, this is me, Julia.  I know I'm just a kid, but I have a WHOLE BIG family!"  "Hi!"  "This is my sister Liza.  She knows a lot of things.  But who's CLEVERER is our sister Lily.  She's the oldest."  "Hi.  I'm Lily.  I have really curly hair, but everybody thinks I am really UGLY.  But who thinks I'm the prettiest is Julia."  (At this point Madeleine broke into a triumphant wordless tune, before resuming her narrative.)  Then a big rainbow happens ABOVE them!

Wow.  Things are really getting wild and crazy now.  Julia looks much better with her haircut, I must say.  And her footless sisters are a nice new addition to the story.  I'm especially intrigued by the fact that, miraculously, a rainbow suddenly appeared above them.  Is this an allegory?  I'm sure Madeleine would NEVER add some random plot piece just because it happened to pop into her head, right?


Pg. 7:

Oooh!  I can tell this page is going to be rich in dialogue!
MADELEINE: "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"  That's all of it.   Then everybody screams.  Wait.  Mama.  I didn't finish all of it.  "AAAAAAHHH!"   "AAAAAAHHHH!"  "AAAAHHHH!"  Cause EVERYBODY sees the ghost.  And Mama?  There's Lily screaming.  That's all of it!

Woah.  My mind is blown here.  Who IS this mysterious ghost?  Is Madeleine going to neatly wrap everything together by making the ghost be Kit?  Or Kit's mother?  Or the squirrels they saw in the tree??


Pg. 8:

MADELEINE: BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM.  (spit swishing sounds)  "Hey!  Guess what, Julia?  We're moving today!"  "Mmmmm.  NO!  NO!  NO!  Waaaaah-aaaaaaaah!"  (The crying sounds seriously went on forever.)ME: Okay.  Then what?
MADELEINE: And that's it!

So.  The story ends with Julia crying inconsolably after her mother announces the family's plans to move that very day.  Hmmm.  Well, that was macabre.  I think we need to give a nod to Madeleine here, folks.  Even though she's a novice in the world of chapter-book writing, she didn't feel the need to fall into the trite and predictable "happily ever after" ending.  No, this young author dared to take a dark turn with her plot, and end with an unresolved wailing lament instead.  WOAH.  I gotta say it, readers.  THAT.  WAS.  AMAZING.

I can't wait to read what this promising child-author turns out next.