Tag Archives: Linh from Vietnam

The Summer is a Great Time To Spread Your Wings, Even in the Water!

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It is wonderful to have a junior journalist to help me write articles for this blog. Who can express what it feels like to be a young girl better than a young girl? I’m so happy to have Linh, my first assistant journalist, from Vietnam, joining me again. You may remember that her mother brought home The Truth in Vietenemese for Linh, when she was 10 and after she read the book she wrote to me. This started a correspondence and friendship. I know feel I know her family and hope someday we will all meet in person.

Linh’s article this time is about swimming. It is her experiences swimming recently, as told to her diary, and I think any girl around the ages of 9-13 can really relate to what she is sharing. She really spreads her wings in the water. Here’s the article:

Dear Diary,
Today is just another regular day. Nothing new. Nothing strange. But I like it more than any other days ! If you wonder why, then read on!
I was taken to the swimming pool on Lach Tray Street by motorbike. My relatives who decided to go out with me that day began jogging as well as taking photos. As for me, Dear Diary, as I am the leading lady of this diary, I came into the bathroom of the swimming pool and changed into my bathing suit. After warming up, I went into the water.
Being underwater during hot days is NOT A BAD IDEA. At first, I felt a little cold, but then I started to feel good enough to go on swimming. But moving in the pool by combining your arms, your legs and breathing is not easy. I was tired after each lap and asked myself how professional swimmers can suffer from swimming so long, without feeling too exhausted to continue.
I stopped to relax by playing with the water. Suddenly, I heard: “Sister Mimi !”. So familiar ! Then I realized the voice came from my little brother. He was standing beside my mother who was using her camera to take photos of mine. I love to take photos and to be in photos, so I was glad to perform my swimming actions for the camera. Then, when I arrived home, all of my family members gathered in the living room to see my pictures and videos at the swimming pool. Yeah, I swam just like a frog and I was proud of being able to struggle with water so successfully. Actually, to swim when a person is trying to record your movements is very interesting !
I’m sleepy now. I’m sure that so are you. Good night and sweet dreams, my beloved Diary.

I hope you enjoyed Linh’s diary entry. Keeping a diary is a very special way to communicate with ourselves at all stages of life. It not only is a means of recording events but it is a special place to share feelings and even to ask questions. It is a kind of sanctuary. Have you kept a diary? Of course the girl in The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything) keeps one and it becomes critical for her as she shares all of her secrets there.

Thanks to Linh for this article! Make sure you also spread your wings in many fun ways this summer!

Why Lockets Are So Important in Books for Ten Year Old Girls And All The Rest of Us!

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Did you ever own a locket? If you did you probably remember the magic of first checking to see if it really opened and then trying to figure out what to put in the picture spots. Usually there were two, one on each side. If you received your first locket when you were a girl, as I did, then you probably chose yourself for one of the pictures. At least I did. It made sense to me, as I had no siblings and if I put pictures in of my mom and dad, then where would I go?

What if I had a crush? Actually I did, but I never would have dreamed of puttling the boy’s picture in. My crush was even to personal to be hidden in a locket.

I liked to wear my locket as it gave me something lovely to touch when I was bored or thinking abstractly in school. It was engraved with some small hearts in a pattern and I could follow the pattern.

So when I was writing The Truth (I’m a girl, I’m smart and I know everything) it was natural for me to put a locket in the story. And for the girl it became very important as she, like most of us, came to value her locket. But for her, unlike me, the locket became a perfect vessel for a secret that she was trying to take into adulthood.

I can’t give it away, that would be unfair. But I do want to share with you some remarks from my associate journalist, Linh, the girl in Vietnam who read The Truth in Vietenemese and then wrote to me. She actually gave the girl a name as she read the book. Here are a few remarks she made about the locket:

“I decided to choose her the name “Funny” when I first read her diary two years ago. Today, I’m writing about her, specifically about her locket and her feelings about it.
On Funny’s birthday – March 30th – she was given money and a lot of gifts. However, maybe the present that she took most of her notice to was the necklace with a locket her aunt gave her. The locket was heart-shaped and lovely with spaces to put two photos in. Funny was extremely happy and satisfied with the gift Aunt Belinda gave her. That is to say, she ran around her room eagerly and kept the locket on her chest before putting the necklace around her neck. And in the locket, there was a picture of hers which was put in by Aunt Belinda. What about the other space ? Which photo would Funny put in, along with her own picture ?
After going downstairs, Funny talked again to her grandmother. Her .grandmother asked her whether she would put her little brother’s picture in the cute locket. Funny didn’t answer, but she thought that she would never put any photo of her little brother’s in the locket with her photo. She wanted to put Paul’s picture – the boy that she had fallen in love with before – in the locket instead. She thought couples often put each other’s picture in a locket like that. But she could find no ways to have one photo of Paul’s. At first, she intended to use Paul’s picture in his student card, but the picture couldn’t be neither taken out nor small enough to be in Funny’s locket. Funny wanted to borrow the Brownie camera of her parents; unfortunately, they wouldn’t permit her to bring it to school. It was such a pity !
There are many things else about Funny that we can discuss more. But still her lovable locket with Funny’s insighful emotions are very awesome, to me personally. Do you also think so, girls ?”

Do you have memories of a locket? Please share by writing to me at drbarbara@enchantedself.com or on the facebook page: The Truth for Girls.