'Figuring out how to be genuinely nice to that girl? Even if she got meaner and meaner and meaner? That would be pretty amazing!'

About Average | Andrew Clements

Average is Amazing!!!

Yesterday, in a student-webinar, a participant had asked me a genuine question that most of us could most possibly relate to!

‘How can I speak with confidence?’

Well, this post on Jay Jay or Jordan Johnston, a sixth grader could well have a cue and a clue on that!

Jordan Johnston is the protagonist of Andrew Clements’ feel-good children’s novel titled, About Average, published in the year 2012.

‘Not short, not tall. Not plump, not slim. Not blonde, not brunette. Not gifted, not flunking out. Even her shoe size is average. She’s ordinary for her school, for her town, for even the whole wide world, it seems’.

But everyone else her age—on TV, in movies, in her sixth-grade class—is remarkable. Tremendously talented. Stunningly beautiful.

Jordan feels doomed to a life wallowing around somewhere in that vast, soggy middle. So she makes a goal: By the end of the year, she will discover her great talent in life. By the end of the year, she will no longer be average. She will find a way to become extraordinary, and everyone will know about it!

These above lines form the epigraph to this inspirational children’s novella!

In fact, Jay Jay has to find a way!

Out of the doom!

Her way!

How pray does she do that!?

That forms the crux and the rest of this engaging feel-good read!

A good-at-heart girl, Jay Jay loves to be nice to her classmates and everyone around her! And that’s because, she always remembered what her mom had told her once in the past –

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

Playing the violin was a battle that gave her trouble!

However, for once Jay Jay feels that she’s not gonna give up on playing the violin!

That’s her resolve!

Why?

Because she feels that, in the past eight months of her sixth grade days, she’s given up on so many things!

The violin was now, her last chance to have a go!

And above everything else, Jay Jay felt absolutely sure that one day her moment of triumph would be real, a part of her life!

And for this, she started working out all by herself on a list, on a pretty sheet of paper!

1. Thing I’m Great At

2. Things I’m Okay At

3. Things I Stink At

However towards the end of the novel, she feels with such intense conviction that, her potential, her capabilities and her talents are beyond all these petty lists!

In fact, now she realizes with conviction, that, none of them mattered unto her!

The last line of the novel bespeaks to her newly acquired confidence -

‘Jordan, Plain and Average, was completely happy about everything, including herself’.

But how does she do that?

And for this, you’ve gotta grab for yourself a copy of Andrew Clements’ About Average right away at that! ;-)

And well, through this loveable, feel-good-read, Andrew vroom drives home the wonderful truth that, in order to have a rewarding, fulfilling life, one need not necessarily be exceptionally talented or gifted!

One just needs to celebrate their life, their personality, and their humanity in all its goodness! By being aware that, being average is indeed joy! Being average is indeed amazing!

And the little subtle message that author Andrew true-proves through Jay Jay, is that,

mean, cheap and nasty behaviour from bullies around you, could be quite easily won over, by your innate sweetness, goodness and niceness!

On this last note, let me authenticate the same, with a lovely passage from off Chapter Nine to the book for us all -

Being nice to people would be so easy if the world were filled with Kylies. Being nice to someone like Marlea was a whole other thing.

Being nice to Marlea? Was that even possible?

The question hit Jordan like an electric current. Her heart actually began to pound.

And the next thought lit her up even brighter: I should do that!

Figuring out how to be genuinely nice to that girl? Even if she got meaner and meaner and meaner? That would be pretty amazing!

At the very least, it would mean taking niceness to some new level.

It would require something way beyond your average, everyday niceness.

‘Everyday niceness!’ :-)

Sounds so nice, ain’t it!? :-) 

image: amazondotcom

drawing: Mark Elliott