Roving Reviewer

When you are the oldest of five children, you have an interesting place in the family.
When two of your siblings are brothers, you learn to appreciate all sorts of things.
Games become a competition between the boys and the girls.
Action figures and superheroes take on new meanings.

It was a movie with action figures that started it all.
Six main characters all named and suited with a different a color.
My children knew the characters; my sons had the action figures.
They all wanted to see the movie.

The movie had only received two stars when I checked the newspaper.
I had read the review on Plugged In, which reviews movies from a Christian perspective.
We all went to see the movie; my husband and I not expecting much from the story line.
Everyone enjoyed it but my oldest daughter had the strongest opinions.

During dinner she shared her many thoughts.
Who writes the movie reviews? the question seemed to come out of nowhere.
They only gave the movie two stars; I would have given it more.
I looked at her and then my husband, wondering what this was all about.

She talked all through dinner about the movie.
Not about the story or the typical things you would discuss.
She talked about the special effects and the way the movie was filmed.
The newspaper’s review really seemed to bother her.

That movie should have gotten more stars.
The movie was better than the newspaper said.
Why don’t kids do movie reviews for kids?
I could have reviewed that movie.

Why don’t you write a letter to the editor of the newspaper and tell him how you feel?
I said that more as a learning experience and formal letter writing practice.
I just might, she said emphatically.
I knew she was really thinking about this and it was only a matter of time.

A few days later she got an envelope, a stamp, and the address of our local paper.
She had written a letter respectfully questioning their rating system.
She proposed an idea and her letter went off in the mail.
A few weeks later, the phone rang at the end of the day.

The man at the other end of the phone asked if this was the home of my daughter.
He introduced himself as the managing editor of the Daily Local Newspaper.
Your daughter wrote me a letter concerning the way we do our movie reviews.
I would like to talk to her and let her know that we have paid attention to her ideas.

He explained that the newspaper was beginning a Newspaper in Education section.
In that section, they decided to have movie reviews.
Using her idea, the movie reviews would be done by a young person.
He wondered if she would like to be that person?

He set up a meeting in his office the following week.
My daughter and I both went at the scheduled time.
I remember her sitting in the leather chair, not realizing the scope of what was happening.
He spoke directly to her.

He thanked her for her letter and her wonderful ideas.
He asked her about her love of writing and the awards she had received.
He told her that she would be called the Roving Reviewer.
She would review the new, age appropriate movies as they came to the theaters.

The newspaper would cover the cost of the movie ticket.
She would submit her review, typed, double-spaced, and mailed to the office.
He showed her a drawer in the filing cabinet that would have her name on it.
He asked if she had any questions.

No, sir, she said quietly.
I would think you would have one important question, he said with a twinkle in his eye.
She looked at me and then back at him.
He smiled and said, How much will I be paid?

Her cheeks got red as she sat in the chair.
She never even considered payment.
The privilege of writing for a newspaper with a byline was thrilling enough.
She was considered a freelance reporter for this new education section.

At 11 years old she wrote her first review; she decided that stars were not appropriate.
She sent her typed review into the newspaper office with her own rating system.
Ice Cream Scoops.
The first movie she reviewed received five scoops.

She wrote her movie reviews from August 1995 to February 2000.
The newspaper even had her go on an undercover assignment.
She went to three, large area theaters to see if they would sell her a ticket without ID.
Two theaters asked for ID and one theater sold her a ticket, no questions asked.

I was in the background, unseen, as she approached the window.
She never actually went to the movie; the ticket was turned over to the newspaper.
The story ran in June 1999 and helped the area theaters be more diligent.
The Roving Reviewer was disclosed as the source when the story was printed.

It was an interesting time for her.
It was a privilege given to her for five years.
She had that job from middle school until she was a sophomore in high school.
As she got older, her movie reviews went from ice cream scoops back to stars.

It is important that we parents encourage our children in their pursuits.
Even if we don’t fully understand or see the benefit of their idea with our adult minds.
We need to encourage them, because the results may go in a direction never anticipated.
You can never predict the outcome of an idea they may propose.

She graduated from college with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English.
She wrote for the college online newspaper.
She is now a web designer.
She has designed both my blog website and the covers of my two books.

You just never know.

Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12)