Notes on becoming a middle schooler

A few years ago, Susan Mulcaire found herself in a tough situation. Her oldest child was about to enter Corona del Mar Middle School, and she needed to prepare him for the transition to a bigger campus, bigger kids and multiple classrooms.

Even trickier, though, was finding a way to keep his spirits up. As Mulcaire scrounged for literature about middle school, it dawned on her that nearly all of it had a negative tone.

“I couldn’t find any single resource that was comprehensive and positive in addressing boys and girls, and doing it with a sense of humor,” said Mulcaire, a mother of three who lives in Newport Beach. “When you’re a middle school student, you need a sense of humor.”

That idea grew into a project that captivated Mulcaire for more than two years. As her children entered middle school and experienced the ups and downs of early secondary life, Mulcaire began converting their stories into a study guide. This September, she self-published her first book, “The Middle School Student’s Guide to Ruling the World! (Through Work Management and Organizational Skills).”

The 176-page book, available on Amazon.com, uses cartoons, activities and — no surprise — plenty of humor to guide young readers along the rough road of entering middle school. Mulcaire, an attorney, created five main characters — Chronically Disorganized Chris, Scattered Sara, Perfect Polly, Late Larry and Jamal the Genius — and tracked them as they battled with organizing binders, planning long-term assignments and just plain staying motivated.

It may sound like a dry read, but Mulcaire took pains to make the book entertaining, with cartoons, graphics and activities throughout. To get a better sense of what format would appeal to middle school kids, she sifted through Tiger Beat and other teen magazines; one section features a “truth or dare” quiz for students to rate their work skills.

Even before the book came out in September, Mulcaire managed to get her message out to a few students. During the spring, she taught weekly classes on the middle school transition at Harbor View Elementary School, which her youngest child attends. In sixth-grade teacher Jessica Gardner’s class, Mulcaire often passed combination locks around the room to give students practice in locking and unlocking them.

This year, Gardner is teaching the fifth grade, but she still uses some of Mulcaire’s lessons with her class to give them an early boost.

“They’re not used to going from one teacher who helps them along to six or seven other teachers who really don’t have the time,” Gardner said. “They have this assignment and this folder and so on. If they can be organized, it really helps.”