Social Skills and Self-Spying: Writing Jarvis Clutch   (continued)

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It may sound bizarre, but I have no idea where Jarvis and his name originated. The concept felt like a lightning bolt of divine intervention. There he was. I’m pretty sure Jarvis is a composite of kids I’ve known, and there’s a moderate-sized chunk of the fourteen-year-old Mel Levine in him as well. Like Jarvis, I loved animals (though not pythons), I was a nonathlete (an understatement), I was controversial (but not rejected), I was funny and sarcastic (from morning til night), and I had an older brother who was perfect (and I was far from it). But I came from an intact upper-middle-class family, while Jarvis, who was raised by a single mother who works hard to make ends meet, deals with issues that I did not.

Jarvis was incredibly easy to write, especially with the superb coaching and gentle coercion of my editor, Stacey Nichols. I also got some help from a panel of middle school students who reviewed the manuscript and were generous with their impassioned suggestions. They filled out multiple questionnaires, offering their advice and opinions from the middle school perspective on the content of each chapter. Interestingly, the girls on the panel liked the book much better than the boys did. The latter were either very critical or didn’t return their questionnaires! This fit with my observation that girls are hungry for knowledge about social interactions, and boys are frightened of it, though both obviously need it.

There were quite a few nights when I would wake up at 3 a.m. and worry about a particular chapter of the book I was to work on the next day. Then, six hours later, I would be at that point in the book and, quite literally, Jarvis himself would take command of the writing; I felt as if that early adolescent were standing behind me and dictating the chapter. The writing became effortless. I had gotten to know Jarvis so well that he became a real coauthor. I’ve since heard the same thing from other writers: book characters come to life; they become your collaborators. Jarvis certainly did. It was weird! Ever since then, walking on a sidewalk or sitting in an airport waiting area, I see a particular awkward middle school kid and find myself thinking—that’s Jarvis.

It is my hope that this book will be used in schools throughout the country. All kids, even the most popular, desperately need to understand social cognition and how it works. Those who are successful on the social scene should be grappling realistically with the price they pay for their status! Those who are having trouble socially need to know what to work on and how.

The timing of Jarvis Clutch—Social Spy could not be better. Violence in our schools testifies to the current dangerous level of social tension and turmoil that exists among adolescents. The book has the potential for many specific applications. I would like to see it used as the basis for a “mini-course” for all middle school or nearly middle school-aged students. I also believe it could serve as the core textbook for those rejected children and adolescents who are in need of social remediation and counseling. In addition, parents might read the book along with their daughters or sons, so there can be some discussion of the social side of life from a family perspective. The ultimate aim of Jarvis Clutch is to get kids to do what he did. We want to encourage kids to spy on their social scene, and more important, to spy on themselves so that they can experience the authentic joys of rewarding relationships and “fit in” without “caving in.”