Are These Books for Real?

ARE THESE BOOKS FOR REAL?

Nancy feels that her books have many important points to convey to teens and parents alike. First of all, the novels are intended to be entertainment. They take place twenty years from now, and although the descriptions of the East Bay city are almost true to real life, the novels are still fiction. (Nancy is a closet science fiction fan!) Yes, there is a high school near Mission Peak, but its name is not Foothill. And yes, there is a classroom building which sits on a small hill, but it is not called the K wing and the hill is too small, really, for anything to slide down it. But Fremont is real, I-680 is real, Silicon Valley is real, the earthquake threat is real, the Hayward fault and the Calaveras dam and fault line are real, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning system is real. And we certainly hope that Mt. Diablo the Volcano is not real, even though it really is an ancient volcano!

The Community Emergency Response Team exists and the School Resource Officer is an actual person. Those students from smaller school districts may be a bit unbelieving at the idea of a school police officer. But Foothill students like their Resource Officer and his office is always crowded with fans. (And sometimes with those who are not fans!) He graciously posed for pictures so that two of our five student illustrators could do a good job drawing a police officer.

All of Jenny's family is real, although they do not necessarily live in the cities described in the books. Shazia is real---how could the books have been written without her? Although several minor characters were named after Jenny's friends, none of the descriptions or circumstances in the stories are real. They came completely from the imagination in response to the plot needs of the stories.

Speaking of other real people---the six illustrations in the three books were drawn by five former and present "Foothill" students. The cover art was painted by Edie Christensen who is an art teacher at "Foothill". Edie is looking at the possibility of expanding her drawing and painting skills to do some illustrations for children's books. Monique Chapman, who is the Public Information Officer for C.E.R.T. (The Fremont Fire Department's Community Emergency Response Team) is also a "Foothill" parent. So in many ways, these books were a true community effort.

Edie Christensen

Monique Chapman

The second reason Nancy wrote these books is to bring to the forefront of community consciousness the need for disaster preparation in the schools. Many schools have wonderful disaster plans and supplies; many schools have not-so-wonderful plans and few supplies. Sometimes a little prod is all people need to start thinking about things. Students should be allowed to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. It makes helping those who really need help, such as those with medical emergencies, much easier.

Thirdly, Nancy wanted to explore issues that teenagers deal with such as AIDS awareness, gay and lesbian issues and drug abuse. Although the PTA newsletter does have a Health and Safety column, issues such as these cannot adequately be explored there. So Nancy decided to give up PTA restrictions and write her own books.

Fourth, Nancy wanted to write about a child in a wheelchair who was happy and well-adjusted to a fate that was not hers to choose but that was also not hers to change. Many stories of people in wheelchairs are written from the point of view that to be in a wheelchair is a tragedy, or that it is something temporary and the person will soon be cured or healed or saved from this terrible fate. Modern medicine is saving many babies who previously would not have survived, and to have a fairly healthy and happy child is to be celebrated when the alternative would have been a child who died.

Nancy says, "These stories are written about a very real, very courageous young lady who is the light of my life. I tell her every day how much I love her and how glad I am that she is alive, and now the whole world will know it, too. "