Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Growing up with brothers

* DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE A COMMENT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A COPY OF JUST YOUR AVERAGE PRINCESS!!!! THE MORE COMMENTS YOU LEAVE THIS WEEK, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING.

Tip of the Day: Just Your Average Princess hits stands today! Make sure to check it out.


To celebrate Tina's new book, we are talking about rivalries this week. Growing up I was closer in age to my brother than sister, so most of my rivalries involved him. So needless to say they weren't of the "which one can wear this shirt better" or "you stole my Barbies" variety. Ours usually involved competing for the biggest and baddest snow fort or seeing who can jump off the roof of our house from the highest location.

When it came to Snow Fort Wars, we usually involved my neighbors. Two of my neighbors (both girls) and I would work as one team and my brother was often a team of one. We'd compete to see who had the most elaborate fort. Including the most rooms, the better tunnels in between the rooms, the comfiest snow chairs, and so on. No one ever really judged, it was just an honorary title. Each of us thinking ours was the best (unless the other one did something so cool, we couldn't help but admit how awesome it was--like a snow cubby that kept you warm and required two people to get you in and out of).

In the Jumping off the Roof Contests, these started off simple enough. Growing up in the country, we had a barn that had a low roof. So it pretty much started as a dare: my brother betting me that I wouldn't jump. And when I did, then he thought we should go even higher with the house roof (is it any wonder that I'm slightly afraid of heights now?). The loser was pretty much the one too chicken to jump that day (which I admit was often me--but not every time).

When I think back now, these are probably some of my fondest memories of growing up. You got to love sibling rivalry.

It's probably why I also like to write girl characters that are often tough on the outside, but not so tough on the inside. Because I never wanted my brother to think of me as anything but tough and strong.

And it's why I also love to read books like Tina's Just Your Average Princess where I can pretend I had a girly childhood and experience a different way of life!

Enjoy!

--Emily

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would love to win a copy! This book looks terrific!

Carmella Van Vleet said...

Yay. Congrats on the book! Looks like a great read.

Andrea Mack said...

Ooh, you have some great novel material here.

Just Your Average Princess sounds like a fun book!

YA Reader said...

I saw this book @ a webinar for librarians and immediately added to my "Must Read" list! Congrats!!

JessWiz said...

LOL! My sister and I had EPIC Barbie wars and weeks-long neighborhood soap operas during the summer. As youngest, I would always get stuck playing the boys and the villains. Maybe that's how I developed such a sympathy for the shady, but redeemable antagonist. : )

I'd love to win a copy of JYAP! My students are looking for more of your books!

~Jessica

wisniewskijb(at)gmail(dot)come

Dizneeee said...

The snow fort sounds wickedly fun! I had two brothers, no sisters. I played with Barbies, but also played with a football, climbed trees, played in the woods behind our house (and lived with poison ivy in the summer), raced in the foot races, and built forts out of bricks (we didn't get a lot of snow, but we had an abandoned lot next to our house with a lot of bricks!) :)

I totally cannot wait to read this book. It's been on my TBR list since I read the first review for it a while back!

lisaaustin121 at gmail dot com

DeenaML said...

Em -- you need to write the snow-fort-competition into a book.... :)