10th Grade: A Novel

10th Grade

A novel written by Joseph Weisberg

Style

10th grade is written in the style of a fifteen year old, with first person narration and erratic sentence structure, ranging from long run-on sentences to very short simple sentences.

"Author"

Jeremy- Main character. Fifteen years old and in tenth grade. Plays soccer. Doesn't consider himself really a jock, because he doesn't have the "Jock state of mind." One of his main goals for his 10th grade year is to take a girl's shirt off. Jeremy tells random stories, like the time he ate sardines for lunch (pg 13), with no transitions. Incredibly honest, writing about his confusions and anxieties, daydreams and fantasies. And proves that it is not just girls that write a crushes name over and over again (Renee Shopmaker pg 16).

Views on Adults

Jeremy makes very astute observations of the adults around him.

Composition teacher-Jeremy's comp. teacher emphasized content in his writing class- Only giving criticism like, "Do you want to use a comma here." Jeremy reflects that his teacher "doesn't want to interfere with your craft." He really seems to respect his teacher for this.

Jeremy's Mom- He says she is medium. He lists her as medium height, hair not short or long, she is not big or small. he doesn't know if she is pretty or not. The lack of description of any kind shows Jeremy believes she is of medium importance as well. Although you may not find much evidence, I suspect she is of much more importance to Jeremy then given. For example, although he was allowed to put the Charlie's angels poster up in his room, it bothered him that she might not really like it. Being unable to describe his mom is pretty descriptive of being a 15 year old, being generally self centered.

Jeremy's Dad- Generally described to be pretty dorky, Jeremy's dad also cares alot about school. "my dad thinks that a B is mediocre versus what the school officially says which is good and he thinks a C is like an F- or a G. The worst grade he ever got was a B on a test in law school when he had bubonic plauge or something."

Coach Kurlyeskus- Jeremy spends a lot of time in soccer practice with this coach. Described as having a huge forehead (at least twice), Jeremy writes about this teacher, "He makes everyone totally thirsty, because in Romania you can't have water until soccer practice is over." Jeremy likes to go to the Coach's office, but says he can feel the difference between going to talk and being called to talk. Jeremy is called and told "Jermee work more in math."

Mrs. Fammer- the school psychologist, she is only mentioned once but it is noteworthy. She comes into the first day of school assembly to explain how to tell if your friends are thinking about committing suicide "one way is if they start talking alot about suicide." I hope this is not typical of the information given to students, but I think it is. Through Jeremy the things adults say sound incredibly condescending. Teachers are always talking down to him.

Mr. Planjet-called Mr. Math, Jeremy likes him because they have fun in class without tests. He tutors Jeremy through math, when he gets another teacher (tragically).

Views on School

Jeremy is a writer- but aware he isn't writing grammatically correct. He reflects on his writing process all the time. On page 13 he says, "I know there are supposed to be about 40 million commas in that sentence and everywhere else too but whenever I put them in they're in the wrong place so screw it."

When remembering Sex Ed- says "It was hard to think in Sex Ed you'd be trying to be so mature all the time and not laugh and you'd have to look around to see who was going to laugh...it is not a learning environment." The use of the phrase 'learning environment' shows a real awareness about what the classroom environment should be.

Math is a very difficult subject for Jeremy. This is partially, he claims, because of his teacher, but he says "I don't do the homework always because you shouldn't be forced to do things you're naturally not intended by God to do." He really believes he was not created to pass math.

Shakespeare-Jeremy wanted to write an English paper with the thesis "Romeo and Juliet totally sucks." I wonder if he should have been allowed to, seriously. He has supporting examples. One is that you can't understand it. Another is that the plot is unrealistic. "1st of all there's no magic potion that does that (Juliet's death) 2nd of all if there was wouldn't you think poeple would know about it by now? so wouldn't Romeo instead of killing himself be like "Hmm Maybe she took that magic potion I better wait a few hours before poisoning myself to death." Instead he wrote "Romeo and Juliet is 1 of Shakespeares greatest plays" and got a C-

Artifact http://www.myspace.com/schear_8

Although this wiki has focused on Jeremy's views on adults and school, much of the novel is about friends and girls. This myspace is exactly who I picture Jeremy to be (even to look like). "Sheldon" plays soccer, and goes to a suburban high school like Jeremy's (it is where I went). He hangs out at the mall food court, hasn't had a date recently, and under "books" (where you list your favorite books) listed "whoever invented reading I will hunt them down!!!!!"

Text http://www.stenhouse.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idProduct=358

This is a book- that I think looks really good- I believe it is encouraging the type of journal writing that Jeremy is doing, and journaling that would be assigned for composition.