Boo.  I made this really cute chart in Excel so you could see how everyone answered last month’s poll question, I think Nice People Are, but I can’t paste it into WordPress.  If anyone has any intel on how to do this, do tell.

I, meanwhile, will share the results in verbal format, and you will have to visualize. 

37% of you thought nice people were often play-acting

35% said that nice people work hard to make others feel happy and cared-for, and they’re grateful

9% said nice people often sacrificed what they want, to their own detriment

7% said nice people were not as interesting as people with edge

2% said nice people were born nice, and

12% said the whole question was too complex to answer in a poll

Very interesting, my friends!  More voters thought nice people were play-acting than they were grateful for the niceness.  Since respondents could vote for more than one category, there could have been an overlap, but still: it seems as though there’s suspicion about the sincerity of nice people.

I wonder if you think the insincerity is pernicious, or just trying to make other people happy?  But then–is that pernicious in itself, to always want to keep others afloat?  I guess the question goes back to the 9% who think that nice people sacrifice what they want, often to their own detriment.  Or maybe something else?

This is certainly the issue  for Sachi in Nice and Mean.  She wants her parents, friends and sister to think she’s the same Sachi she’s always been, but she has ambitions that need more than niceness to be realized.  Especially when it comes to dealing with Marina…

For late April/early May, we turn to the other half of Nice and Mean, Marina herself, and ask you to complete the sentence, “I think mean people are…”

And in June–when N&M comes out–I can’t even think what deliciousness lies in store.

Happy voting!  Vote early, vote often!

Note 2: Nice and Mean giveaway still in progress !

Last month’s poll question was, What did you think of your parents when you were in seventh grade?  Interestingly, this poll got the fewest number of responses ever–a mere 13, compared to past responses of 50 or more. 

Maybe I didn’t publicize it right, or maybe people are not interested in remembering what they thought about their parents at that age.  Or maybe some of us are parents and don’t want to go through that Looking Glass. 

In any case, here’s the report:

The majority of voters (42%), wrote that their parents were

“Pretty nice, helpful and loving, whether I saw it at the time or not.” 

 15% voted, “Probably they had my best interest at heart, but so they were annoying/ critical/ over-protective!”

Nobody said that their parents were easy to scam, but two people (15%) replied, “My parents…oh, you mean the people who fed me sometimes?”

Three people replied that their answers were too complex for multiple choice, and one respondent, a friend with an interesting mind, wrote,

“7th Grade pretty much drove home my creeping suspicion that my parents were neither all powerful, all knowing, nor able to take care of every problem I might have, as great as they were. Quite the bummer.”

Does that sum it up?  Scratch the surface?  I don’t know.  Parenting and being parented can be such loaded experiences—it’s a wonder how we don’t crack at the weight of it all. 

I asked this question because in Nice and Mean, Marina and Sachi, the protagonists, have very different relationships to their parents.  Marina, the mean girl referred to in the title, has a mom who is often quite narcissistic, which fuels Marina’s anger.  Sachi, the nice girl, is Indian, and her parents can be strict about many things, but there’s more love than in Marina’s relationship with her parents.  There are just so many things that influence a parenting experience—the parent’s job, financial situation, feelings about their own place in the birth order, relation to their new home, etc. etc.  Maybe this poll drew the fewest votes because it’s all too complex for multiple-choice. 

Onward, then!  This month: Nice people are….

Complex, potentially, but hopefully, less loaded.

See you at the voting booth!   And maybe the giveaway, too!

What did you think of your parents in seventh grade?

(Yeah, it’s not necessarily a pretty question, but there are some funny choices on there, I promise.) 

The poll will change next Monday, so today is your last chance.  (wait, what?  Noo, today is Thursday.)  Let’s make that–today may be your last chance!  It’s like the US Census: Stand up and be counted!  (Except this one, you can do sitting down!)

In the interest of not asking you guys to do all the disclosure, let’s see–what did I think of my parents in sventh grade? I was probably hugely bratty and overlooked their many contributions to my well-being.  Not that they were perfect, but my dad read Great Expectations when it was assigned to me, in case I needed help, and my mom took two of my friends with us on a weekend ski trip just because I asked.  Wow, that was so nice of her!  I’ll have to thank her for that. 

Et vous?  Feel free to be anon if you don’t want your parents looking at this.  Because, you know, you’re not supposed to write anything on the web that you wouldn’t want your parents to read.

29% of you, the largest portion, said they wore whatever their friends were wearing.

17% replied that they wore whatever was in their closet, and another 17% said they wore whatever they could afford. 

A relatively slender portion (8%) reported that they wore whatever was on their floor, or whatever didn’t get them busted for uniform violation, with the smallest portion (4%) saying they wore whatever the cool kids were wearing or whatever the older kids were wearing. 

Then there were the 13% who reported, “Other.”  I’m hoping those were some of the stories recounted here.  They were pretty great. 

Funnily enough, no one said that they chose to wear whatever no one else was wearing.  Is that because we all now realize that almost any seemingly ground-breaking trend was started by someone else, or that nobody started trying to be original until later years?

In any case, thanks for chiming in!  Off to the next poll–What did you think of your parents in seventh grade?

So every month, I post a new poll on my website (www.jessicaleader.com–just like this except w/out the blog)–that relates in some way to Nice and Mean.  The first was about whether you were nice or mean or somewhere in between, back in middle school; last month’s had to do with getting what you want (something both characters have great difficulty doing–one wreaks havoc in her wake; the other one sneaks). 

This month, I’ve asked, How did you decide what to wear in seventh grade?  People have been voting, with interesting results (honestly, I would not have guessed my friends and acquaintances were quite as conformist, but I suppose we all are, in some way)–but the best responses have come from Facebook.  In the name of giving you something interesting to read (because it is, after all, Comment Challenge Month, so we’re all hopping on each others’ blogs in search of material juicy enough to comment on), here are some fabby excerpts:

Stole my stepsister’s jeans and hoped to get home from school before she did so I wouldn’t be caught.

In seventh grade, I think I was shopping at stores like Claire’s. Eighth grade was the year for curlers. The bangs were definitely in a forehead salute.

I can’t remember how, but I do remember never getting it right.

How do you get what you want?

If someone is standing in the way of getting what I want, I am most likely to…

• Decide what I want is not worth an argument 0%
• Sneak around them to get my way – 13%
• Discuss what I want with the person and try to compromise — 44%
• Try to get them to see that what I want is good for them, too – 31%
• Blow past them however I can to achieve my goal — 13%

If you’re a blow-paster, you’re like narrator numero uno, Marina, and frankly, even though I know many adult readers may balk at Marina’s brashness, I think young readers like and even envy that quality.  Why are they so into The Clique and The Ashleys?  The clothes, maybe, but also the idea that somebody out there just does what she wants.  Of course, maybe they also comfort from the fact that there are often consequences from completely unleashing your inner beech tree. 

If you kind of swallow what you want, you’re like Sachi–at least, how she starts at the beginning of the book.  She learns a little from her experiences, and from Marina, to be more direct. 

To vote in this month’s poll, How did you decide what to wear in seventh grade? Go here.

Last month I asked whether you, in seventh grade, were/are nice, mean, or somewhere in between.  54 of you awesome people reported the following, with the most popular in green:

You in seventh grade:

I always try to be nice, no matter what 30% (16 votes)

I’m usually pretty nice, except if I’m in a bad mood 33% (18 votes)

To be honest, I can be both nice and mean 28% (15 votes)

I’m nice to my friends, but if I don’t respect someone, I have no problem being mean 7% (4 votes)

I’d be mean to friends, enemies, or whoever, if they get in my way 2% (1 votes)

I was inspired that so many people tried to be nice as often as they could.  But frankly….I don’t know…who else out there teaches seventh grade?  Who else remembers seventh grade?  Don’t you think there were way more people who had no problems being mean to someone they didn’t respect? 

So–the people who took the poll–friends and fellow children’s book writers–are exceptionally nice?  We have faulty memories?  We don’t think we’re being mean, but sometimes, we are?  To what do you attribute this discrepancy?  Very curious.  Can’t wait to hear thoughts.

Oh, and: As you may have guessed, these answers correspond to characters in the book.  Most of you were Sachi, and not Marina.  You’ll see what I mean.