One morning, while monitoring the before school recess, a student asked if they could pick up trash on the playground. I told her that she could and went to get the trash grabber and bucket for her out of the playground shed. There were some 5th grade girls walking around with me and when I was getting out the trash tools, they spotted the pool noodles in the shed. They asked if they could play with them and I told them no, that they are only used for P.E. After getting what was needed out of the shed and going back to monitoring, I started thinking about the pool noodles. I told the girls that it would be fun to have a “Pool Noodle Day” at school during the recesses. Then we started thinking of things that they could be used for during recess. I have seen pictures of large groups of people having pool noodle wars by hitting each other with them and having a lot of fun, so I asked the girls what they thought about that idea. They said it sounded like fun. From there on the story started forming in my head and when I had ideas, I would run them by my two 5th graders to get their opinions. They were very good helpers and the story was written.

No, there has never been or most likely will ever be a “Pool Noodle Day” at my school. We do have an alphabet countdown that the principal comes up with for the last 26 days of school each year. However, the letter “P” is usually “Pajama Day” and the concern that a pool noodle war might breakout with lots of injuries is the biggest reason there won’t be a day dedicated to pool noodles.

Yes, and no. Max, the bully, is made up of several people I have known over the years. He is not just one person, but a combination of people, attitudes, circumstances, and some added entertainment that I created.

I chose basketball because it is one of the main sports at the school I work at and we have a lot of dedicated basketball players.

I live in northern California and took some aspects from the school I work at and other schools in the area to create my settings.

I have family in northern Arizona, close to Sedona and I love visiting there whenever we go to visit family. 

Yes, my husband and I have two adult daughters who we are very proud of and both went to the school I work at when they were younger. 

Yes, I plan to write more books and have several ideas that I have written down to elaborate on. I have even started to get a story together for my next book.