美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Frazzled' Takes Hilarious Look At The Ups and Downs Of Middle School

'Frazzled' Takes Hilarious¹ Look At The Ups and Downs Of Middle School

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0005:23repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: 

If you want to scare a kid - like, see them actually shiver - just say these two words - middle school. There is something about those years - the changes, the betweenness, not a child, not a teenager - that makes middle school pretty dreadful for a lot of kids. That's what Booki Vivat has tapped into for her first book. It's a graphic³ novel for kids. It's called "Frazzled: Everyday Disasters And Impending⁴ Doom⁵." And she is with us now from our New York bureau. Welcome to the show.

BOOKI VIVAT: Thank you so much for having me.

MCEVERS: So tell us a little bit about the main character in this book. Her name is Abbie Wu. What's going on with her when we first meet her at the beginning of the book?

VIVAT: Well, Abbie Wu is naturally and forever has been a kid who is just always freaking out. And especially now she's freaking out because she's heading into middle school, and she doesn't really know what to expect. And she's dealing⁶ with a lot of new, scary emotions.

MCEVERS: And this is a graphic novel, and so I wonder how that came to be. I mean did you draw it first and write it later?

VIVAT: It actually was an idea that came out of these illustrated⁷ planners that I keep. And I started keeping these planers as a way to kind of keep my life organized. And eventually doodles of my feelings and emotions and the things that I was doing - they ended up taking over my whole planner.

And one - like, through a series of very fortunate events, it got into the hands of an editor at HarperCollins. And this editor was flipping⁸ through these pages of my, like, private life, and she came across this one illustration that I had done in a moment of extreme crisis and very dramatic emotion that read, I live my life in a constant state of impending doom. And she pointed⁹ to the girl in that picture and said, there's a story here; that's our girl.

MCEVERS: Wow.

VIVAT: And so...

MCEVERS: And you - I mean that's where you work. You work...

VIVAT: Yes, I do.

MCEVERS: Could you just describe Abbie Wu for us, you know, kind of what she looks like and the visual world that she's moving through?

VIVAT: Yeah. So Abby Wu is an Asian-American girl. She's just kind of wild and wacky. And I think that she has a lot of emotions. And the book definitely shows her as having those emotions.

MCEVERS: Right, and she's sort of talking about the curse of the middles. You know, not only she going into middle school, but she's the middle child. She's got this, like - these two siblings¹⁰ on either side of her who are kind of, like, these wonder kids who everybody loves. And she's just not really feeling like she's as great as they are.

VIVAT: Exactly. And I think the worst part about middle school for her is that everyone else seems to have it figured out, and she doesn't have anything figured out. I think that for her, the biggest, scariest part about middle school is the fact that she feels like she has to have her thing figured out, you know...

MCEVERS: Yeah.

VIVAT: ...The thing that makes her who she is, the thing that everyone knows her for, her capital-T thing.

MCEVERS: Right.

VIVAT: And she hasn't found that yet.

MCEVERS: And I love that everything kind of goes OK for her for a while. You know, she kind of starts to figure things out. But then it takes another bad turn.

VIVAT: It does. It does. So really the thing that is getting to her on top of all the existential stuff is the concrete details of the fact that in middle school, the cafeteria ladies are just a little bit corrupt¹¹. And they don't let the sixth graders have any of the good food.

So Abbie thinks that this is just a huge injustice¹², so she starts this kind of underground lunch revolution. She actually kind of falls into starting it. And I think at first she doesn't really know what she's doing, but the more that she gets pulled into this world, the more she kind of starts to take on more of a leadership role.

MCEVERS: As I was reading it, I thought to myself, this was written by an adult, but it's really, like, inside the head of a kid. How did you do it?

VIVAT: I think a lot of adults don't want to admit it, but I think we're all still kind of stuck in middle school. At least that's how I feel. But I think ultimately the questions that come up in middle school are kind of questions that I think continue on through adulthood¹³, these ideas of, who am I? Where do I belong?

I feel like that's something that I'm still struggling with and still kind of working through. And it's something that we don't really tell kids. I think that becoming an adult and growing up - it's all a process, and it's not necessarily something you grow out of.

MCEVERS: The book ends on kind of a cliffhanger. I mean does that mean there's going to be "Frazzled" two?

VIVAT: There will be a "Frazzled" two, and I kind of wanted it to end on a cliffhanger. I threw around the idea of giving her thing, but it just didn't feel right because I think the whole book was about her kind of coming to the realization¹⁴ that figuring out who you are and where you belong in life is a process.

MCEVERS: That's Booki Vivat. Her new graphic novel is called "Frazzled." Thank you very much.

VIVAT: Thank you so much for having me.

1 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

4 impending   

a.imminent, about to come or happen

参考例句：

• Against a background of impending famine, heavy fighting took place. 即将发生饥荒之时，严重的战乱爆发了。
• The king convoke parliament to cope with the impending danger. 国王召开国会以应付迫近眉睫的危险。

5 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

6 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

7 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

8 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

9 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

10 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

11 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

12 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

13 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

14 realization   

n.实现；认识到，深刻了解

参考例句：

• We shall gladly lend every effort in our power toward its realization.我们将乐意为它的实现而竭尽全力。
• He came to the realization that he would never make a good teacher.他逐渐认识到自己永远不会成为好老师。