Break These Rules

Book excerpt: “This book actually breaks the rules just by existing. This much sheer coolness should not be allowed in one volume!” —Jordan Sonnenblick, bestselling author of Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie In Break These Rules, 35 favorite middle grades and young adult authors—including Kathryn Erskine, A. S. King, Matthew Quick, Sara Zarr, Gary Schmidt, and many others—speak directly to their readers and advise them to break the boundaries of conformity. In moving, inspiring, often funny essays they take on many of the powerfully inhibiting, often unspoken “rules” of adolescence, such as Boys shouldn’t be gentle, kind, and caring; Thou shalt wear Abercrombie & Fitch to fit in; You must be a jock or a nerd--you can’t be both; and Girls should “act like girls.” It is often through reading fiction that kids start to question such restrictions, so who better to speak to them directly than their favorite novelists? The book is focused on encouraging students to break rules in their own lives—a prospect many teens and tweens will find thrilling and fresh. Luke Reynolds has taught middle and high school English in Connecticut and Massachusetts, as well as composition at Northern Arizona University. He is the author of A Call to Creativity and Keep Calm and Query On.