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Jughead and Me (part one)
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Mairah Shuaib
School Daze PART 3
This is a harrowing chapter, but the narrator’s dry, matter-of-fact humor keeps it from becoming emotionally one-note. The baseball bat confession, the toys spilling out of the closet, and especially the lighter-fluid fire all show a child improvising his way through chaos while barely understanding what he is doing. Lines such as “I considered that kind of a deal we had” capture the bleak arrangement between the boy and his mother with uncomfortable precision: she wants to believe him, and he wants to avoid the consequences. I also believed the strange logic behind the stealing—not simple greed, but accumulation, concealment, and perhaps an attempt to control something in an unstable home. The mother’s collapse into remorse gives the ending a painful cycle: apology, promises, a brief improvement, and the narrator’s knowledge that it will not last. My unresolved concern is that the violence is so extreme, and the household so dangerous—with alcohol, fires, and weapons in the child’s reach—that I wanted a little more sense of how he understood or carried that night afterward. The detached voice is compelling, but it also leaves the emotional damage deliberately at a distance.
Eleanor Hart
The Pleasant Pleasure Ride #3
This was a fun, wonderfully specific morning on the range. The one-pan bacon, potatoes, and eggs, the careful toast, and the search for the hidden bronc made the whole setting feel lived-in. I especially enjoyed the prank of sending the narrator looking everywhere for a horse that was practically right by the spring. The encounter with Uncle George was a great payoff too—having this huge, familiar figure emerge from the empty prairie, casually taking a six-mile “little walk,” was both funny and memorable. Robby’s bronc getting startled gave the ride just enough tension, while the narrator’s affection for George added a warm finish. A relaxed story, but full of character and strong ranch atmosphere.
Ethan Walker
Me and Robby and the Sheep Wagon #2
A view of those days of early creativity, greqty
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