Not now, Sizemore

I got to read to Jaime’s class today. Killed it.

I thought Not Now, Bernard would go down a storm, but it hot a little differently from what I expected. I guess it’s very much of its age, hell, it was read to me when I was their age. They couldn’t handle the ending.

‘What happened to Bernard?’ one kid asked hesitantly.

’THE MONSTER ATE HIM!’ replied another.

I explained to them that some stories can be read a little differently than just what’s on the surface and maybe there wasn’t a monster at all. Maybe Bernard was pretending to be a monster to get his parents’ attention.

But even then it’s a story about having shitty parents. It’s not very 2024. Also I don’t believe it for a second.

Bernard’s dead, baby. Bernard’s dead.

The second book was more of an instant hit, mostly because I’m way past being self conscious and the book is very good at putting the reader on the spot. I left the books for the class to have and I’m sure the teachers are going to hate me once they  have to act the thing out.