Walk Up Not Out

The Walk Out movement is an effort on the part of kids to keep attention on the problem of shootings in American schools by walking out of class. Students feel they must try to stop these assaults, since adults haven’t done anything to end them

An alternative that's been suggested to walking out is walking up. The idea behind Walk Up is that students should walk up to a fellow student and offer friendship and kindness. It’s that simple. Invite a kid to sit at your lunch table; pick the kid for your gym team who never gets picked; say something nice to the kid who seems upset. The hope is that these actions might keep others from feeling isolated and angry.

Regardless of its ultimate impact on school violence, I love the idea behind Walk Up. Ten years ago I wrote a novel for young readers called FULL TO BURSTING that’s about a seventh grade boy who moves to a new city and uses Walk Up-style strategies to make friends and improve life for kids at his school. It’s a hopeful novel about the benefits of thinking outside the box to make your small corner of the world better.

I’ve always loved this book, but after some near-misses with traditional publishers, I eventually self-published it under a different title. The other title and the old cover never worked for me, and I never did much promotion. Finally, a few months ago, I decided the book needed another chance, so I gave it a round (or three) of edits, added a new cover, and went back to the original title of FULL TO BURSTING. It’s now available as a free ebook download on Smashwords.com. Here’s a direct link to the page https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/210724 where you can use the coupon code and download for free. It’s on Amazon, too, but it’s not free. It’s not a Kindle exclusive, so I can’t make it free on Amazon. The best I can do is 99 cents.

I’m also trying to figure out how to offer it as a free download on my website, but right now I’m nursing a sinus headache, so that will have to wait for another day. The advantage of Smashwords is that you can choose which format you want to download. (Kindle, PDF, etc.)

If you know any kids (or adults) who would enjoy a funny novel about how an average 12-year-old managed to improve his life and his school, please download and share. I’m in the process of putting together a print version of the book, although that one can’t be free because it costs something to have it printed.

Please be kind to each other.