I was really excited when Michael Accordino assigned this project to me while I was working at Simon & Schuster. It had such a great, relatable title. You can’t help but think of all the things you hated about what were supposed to be “the best years of your life.” For me, the two worst things about those middle school/high school years were science class and science tests—so I set up the cover as if it were some terrible test involving dissection. I drew the frog myself. I think the last time I drew anything was in middle school, so my amateurish drawing was pretty much exactly what I would have done had I been asked to sketch a frog back then.

My friend Matt Thomas was kind enough to type up all the contributors’ names on his Underwood Standard typewriter. I had been searching for a good typewriter when, out of the blue, Matt sent me something in the mail typed on his Underwood. The nice heavy letters were exactly what I had been unable to find with newer typewriters.

The entire back and spine is done in pencil on notebook paper. The only thing that’s not hand-done is the barcode. I was fortunate to be able to extend the concept to include the whole cover and not just the front.

A non-clichéd take on the notebook motif for adolescent stories.