DR. WALLACE: I'm 17 and have a 9-year-old sister. We live together with our single mom, and the three of us girls get along pretty well for the most part. I have a decent relationship with my little sister, even though I'm almost twice her age. I do notice that she always wants to try to act more mature than she is, and she often tries to copy things that I do, even though some of them aren't necessarily appropriate for her age.

However, there's one thing that has been driving me crazy the last several weeks! My little sister has a spiral notebook and will take a pencil, write some notes into it, then show them to our mom for her to read so that I can't see the page. Sometimes my mom will smile, sometimes she will nod her head; other times she'll shake her head or even laugh. I never seem to know what is on those pages and what my mother is reading. As soon as my mom sees what my sister is showing her, my sister will immediately take the eraser at the end of her pencil and erase everything she just wrote! She always also keeps a pen nearby, and then she will take her pen and write her name over the erased pencil words, so that I can't see what was ever on there.

Maybe it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I'll admit that it does bother me. And when I ask my mother what she's writing on those pages, my mom always indicates it's really nothing of any consequence at all. Why do you think my sister is doing this? — Have a Secretive Little Sister, via email

HAVE A SECRETIVE LITTLE SISTER: This may be her way of feeling that she is elevating herself up to the levels of maturity that you and your mother possess. Being so young, she likely craves being taken seriously on an adult level. She likely doesn't understand that despite her efforts here, to play the game of hiding everything from you actually exposes her immaturity. The best thing you can do in my opinion is to simply smile and let it go. After she completes one of her cycles of writing something in pencil, erasing it and writing over it in pen by spelling her name, simply say to her, "I hope it was a good note this time!"

Have a good laugh over it, and compliment your little sister on how doing all this writing is helping her with her penmanship. You are nearly an adult now yourself, and your sister is likely craving to be more like you and your mother than she is presently capable of doing on her own, hence she values the attention and mystique she can bring to her situation from time to time.

MY SISTER IS POKEMON CRAZY!

DR. WALLACE: My younger sister has an obsession, and it is twofold. The first part of her obsession is saving every possible recyclable item in our household, then going up and down our street to get all our neighbors to give her their recyclables as well. Somehow, my sister got it in her mind that if she became proactive in this way, she could keep all the money for turning in the recycled plastic bottles, cans and so forth.

Then, when she does get this money, she immediately spends it on all sorts of Pokemon cards and characters! Her collection already is out of control. What's worse, our parents don't seem to stop her at all from doing this. Do you think it's a waste of time and money for my sister to spend everything she can get on the world of Pokemon? — My Sister Is Pokemon-Obsessed, via email

MY SISTER IS POKEMON-OBSESSED: Well, there could be a lot of worse things she could be into! The one thing I really like about her Pokemon obsession is the fact that she's raising money out of her own time, efforts and hustle to fund her hobby.

Not only that, but she's doing well by making sure recyclable items are actually getting recycled. And beyond that, if she keeps her Pokemon items in good condition, over the years there's a chance they will appreciate in value, so she could be onto something more than you or even I realize at this point. I don't know much about Pokemon other than to know it's an extremely popular collectible, and as with most collectible things, certain pieces of collections can at times rise in value.

Dr. Robert Wallace welcomes questions from readers. Although he is unable to reply to all of them individually, he will answer as many as possible in this column. Email him at [email protected]. To find out more about Dr. Robert Wallace and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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