I Love Children's Books

 

I just finished reading The Star that Always Stays by Anna Rose Johnson, and I thought, “This may be one of my new favorite books.” Not THE favorite, but near the top.

I love reading children’s books, and especially middle-grade fiction. The Star that Always Stays is about a girl living in Michigan in the early 1900s. Most of it takes place among people who don’t share her Ojibwe heritage, and she doubts herself for several reasons. I won’t tell you any more in case you want to read the book.

It isn’t my top favorite of the recently published books for children, however. That distinction goes to The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, which tells the story of a British girl who evacuates to the countryside during World War II. The sequel, The War I Finally Won, is almost as good. Again, I won’t give you any details in case you want to read them.

Then there are all the books that I grew up with or read to my own children. When asked, I usually say that my favorite is Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery, but I'm not sure that’s true. That list is probably topped by The Borrowers by Mary Norton. I love the creativity involved in finding a different use for ordinary objects.

The list of my favorite children’s books would be incomplete without Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series, C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series, Louisa May Alcott’s books, and the more recent historicals by Sandra Dallas.

I can’t finish without mentioning some books for younger children. The Amelia Bedelia books make me laugh as she takes everything literally, and The Boxcar Children series starts with the same creativity I enjoy in The Borrowers.

Actually, this list barely scratches the surface, but it makes the point.

I love reading children’s books.

Writing Middle-Grade Fiction

 

Five weeks ago I used a post discussing Madeleine L’Engle’s philosophy about writing for children. This week I’m giving you a laundry list of techniques that work with her ideas, making these two posts the perfect book-ends for a series on writing for children. Today’s post was published on the Indiana Writers’ Consortium blog on March 14, 2018.

Writing Middle-Grade Fiction

As mentioned in my May 31, 2021 post, middle-grade fiction is adult fiction written for a younger audience. In other words, middle-grade readers expect the same tightly written story, gripping plot, and believable characters that adults do. So don’t attempt to write middle-grade fiction unless you are willing to learn the techniques used by respected authors who write for grown-ups.

What are these techniques? Here is a partial list.

·       Hook the reader at the very beginning (the first sentence, paragraph, or page).

·       Use a consistent point-of-view. Even if there are several POV characters, make the POV consistent within a scene.

·       Show, don’t tell.

·       Give the protagonist and other major players distinctive personalities and individual character arcs.

·       Ensure that your main plot has rising stakes and plenty of conflict and tension. Middle-grade readers can handle a lot of bad news (think Harry Potter).

·       Write natural-sounding dialogue that doesn’t copy actual speech (e.g., avoid words like “um,” pauses, and meaningless words and phrases unless they convey something about the character or the action).

·       Eliminate unnecessary description, dialogue, and action. If it doesn’t add something vital to the story, cut it out.

·       Write with strong nouns and verbs (avoiding most adjectives and adverbs).

·       Trust your readers (e.g., don’t tell readers what they can figure out for themselves).

·       Provide a satisfying ending. Surprises are good, and the reader doesn’t have to see it coming. But the reader should be able to look back with hindsight and say, “of course.”

Look for writers’ conferences and online classes that teach these principles. And since they are the same for older audiences, you aren’t limited to conferences and classes geared to middle-grade authors.

Obviously, there are a few differences between adult and middle-grade fiction, and I discussed those in earlier posts. But the actual techniques are the same.  

As Madeleine L’Engle said, “a children’s book must be, first and foremost, a good book, a book with a young protagonist with whom the reader can identify, and a book which says yes to life.”¹

So if you want to write one, first learn the basics of writing fiction for adults.

__________

¹ Walking on Water

It's a Dark World

I just finished reading The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange, and I enjoyed it. Or maybe enjoyed is the wrong word since I read most of it with tears in my eyes.

The book had a good rating on Amazon, but a number of reviewers said it was too dark for the 8-12 age group where the publisher had placed it.

I disagree.

Obviously, every parent should monitor his or her child’s reading material and understand what that individual child can handle. But this is a dark world, and children of all ages come across death and mental illness and ruthless people. We can’t protect our children from the dark side of life, but we should prepare them as best we can. And fiction is one means of doing that. Obviously, some novels handle these matters better than others, but The Secret of Nightingale Wood treats the issues sensitively. I certainly would not have objected to my daughter reading it when she was eight years old.

The book is writen by a British author and is set in England just after World War I. As mentioned by one reviewer, it would have benefited from an author’s note putting it in historical perspective. Still, middle-grade readers should be able to follow the story and separate the worthy characters from the immoral ones.

I am reminded of Katherine Paterson’s Bridge to Terabithia, which won the Newberry Metal but was banned from some school libraries because it deals with death (and for some mild language that every child is familiar with). In my opinion, it is one of the best books on death ever written for children.

The Secret of Nightingale Wood isn’t quite a Bridge to Terabithia, and it is far from perfect, primarily because there are too many coincidences for my liking. Fortunately, most have some advance set-up, and the one that didn’t became less of a concern on second glance. I won’t spoil the plot, but when I thought about that seemingly important coincidence (which comes almost at the end of the book), I realized that it wasn’t even necessary to the story, which resolved nicely without it.

But as to not letting your children read it because it deals with dark subjects? That’s not a valid reason. You can’t protect them from life, but you can try to prepare them for it.

So add The Secret of Nightingale Wood to your middle-grade child’s library.

A Book Lover's Middle Grade Gift List

I love reading middle-grade fiction, which may be why I write it. With the gift-giving season upon us, I decided to share some of my favorites. I also decided to follow a theme and concentrate on middle-grade protagonists who are struggling to accept their differences and/or rise above them. Since I am only including books that I have read in the last two or three years, you might notice a preponderance of historical fiction. And, unfortunately, most of them have female protagonists, making them less appealing to boys. If you are shopping for boys, check out Wonder and Half a World Away, both described below.

Disabilities

• The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is one of my favorites and my clear winner among those published in the past two or three years. The protagonist was born with a club foot and has led a very restricted life. The story moves from London to the English countryside and begins in 1939 at the start of World War II, which is the war of the title. I just finished reading the sequel titled The War I Finally Won, which takes place a year later but refers to a different war—this one inside the protagonist. Both books are excellent, and I highly recommend them.
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio is a very inspiring contemporary story about a boy who was born with facial deformities. I haven’t seen the movie, but I did read the book earlier this year. Amazon kept prompting me to buy it and I kept refusing because I thought it would be depressing. When I finally gave in, I discovered that the story isn’t depressing at all. A good book for boys as well as girls, you will even enjoy reading it yourself.
• I don’t recommend The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time for this age group. It’s a good book and I liked it, but there was some language that I was uncomfortable with. In addition, the autistic protagonist’s thought process is complicated and, although that’s part of the point, I think it might be too confusing for middle-grade readers.

Ancestry

• The Colored Car by Jean Alicia Elster takes place in 1937. The protagonist has grown up in a black community in Detroit and doesn’t understand anything about prejudice until the summer she visits her grandmother in Tennessee and has to ride in the “colored car.” Back at home, she begins to notice the subtle discrimination that surrounds her in the North, and the way she views the world is forever changed.
• Desert Jewels by Kaye Page doesn’t rank with the others on this list, but I had to include it because, after all, I wrote it. A story about the treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the book has a protagonist with a Japanese father and a Caucasian mother. In those days, that meant her family was shunned by people from both the Japanese and the white communities. But by the time the story ends, Emi has learned that her value doesn’t depend on her ancestry.
• Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan could fit here or in the next group because both ancestry and poverty are strong themes. Esperanza has grown up as a spoiled heiress in Mexico. When circumstances force her to flee with her mother to California during the Great Depression, she must suddenly adjust to a new life. The lot of a Mexican farm worker is not an easy one, and the reader joins her as she tries to rise above it.  

Poverty and Homelessness

• Hold Fast by Blue Balliett is a contemporary story about a girl who loses her home and must move into a homeless shelter. The ending feels a little unrealistic, but the description of life in a homeless shelter really held my attention.
• The Truth about Sparrows by Marion Hale is another story that takes place during the Great Depression. The protagonist doesn’t want to move, but there is nothing left for her family in Missouri. She hates Texas, where she works in the cannery to help her disabled father. But when times get tough, she discovers that a community can exist anywhere.

Foreign Adoptions

• Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata is the other book that is good for boys. The protagonist was adopted from Romania four years earlier, when he was eight, and he is a problem child. He thinks the child they are in the process of adopting from Kazakhstan is a replacement, and he doesn’t blame them for wanting to get rid of him. After all, he doesn’t love them—or does he? This book shows the difficulties that come with foreign adoptions, but it also highlights the joys.

I AM Working

In On Writing, Stephen King says, “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” I totally agree. I also believe that you must read what you write, and this is equally true for those of us who write for children. I write middle grade fiction, so I read middle grade fiction. And even though it’s a lot of fun, it is also an integral part of my work. How’s that for a job perk?

I write historical fiction, but my reading covers a broader range. Although I enjoy classics such as the Little House on the Prairie series, reading recent books and following current trends helps me understand today’s readers. These trends include fractured fairy tales and what I call cipher books. I’m not sure if that latter category has an actual name, but it covers stories where the characters have to solve a puzzle by figuring out clues. The clues are often given in code, and the best books give readers enough information to figure out the puzzle alongside the characters.

So how many middle grade novels have I read in recent months? I can’t remember them all, but here is a partial list.*

Historical Fiction

• The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley—I absolutely love this book, which is my top pick of all the books I have read in the last year or so;
• The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz;
• The Detective’s Assistant by Kate Hannigan—this could also be classified as a cipher book, but the historical elements predominate;
• Rescuing Ivy by Karen Kulinski;
• Ruby Lee & Me by Shannon Hitchcock;
• The Truth About Sparrows by Marion Hale; and
• The Romeo and Juliet Code by Phoebe Stone.

Cipher Books

• The Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman;
• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein; and
• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.

Fantasy

• Nightmares! by Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller;
• A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz—this is a fractured fairy tale in the Lemony Snicket style;
• Splendors & Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz; and
• How to Train Your Dragon by Cressida Cowell.

Other

• The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky by Holly Schindler;
• Homesick by Kate Klise; and
• At Your Service by Jen Malone.

Then there are the books I own but haven’t read yet:

• Murder is Bad Business by Robin Stevens (a historical mystery);
• Hold Fast by Blue Balliett (contemporary);
• May B. by Caroline Starr Rose (a historical in verse);
• The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby (fantasy); and
• Grounded: The Adventures of Rapunzel by Megan Morrison (a fractured fairy tale).

So don’t call me lazy when you see me reading children’s books. I AM working.

It’s such a hard life.

__________

* This list does not include the many historical middle grade novels I read about the events that are the subjects of my own manuscripts.

Books as Vaccines

My current work-in-progress is the darkest one I have written—and it’s for a middle grade audience.

I had a short e-mail conversation with my online critique partner about whether Creating Esther was too dark for the age group. She thought it would be fine for public school students but felt that some home-schooled children are more sheltered. The conversation was short because she agreed with my response, and it’s hard to have a long discussion when everyone is in sync.

So what was my response? First, I’ve read other dark books written for middle graders, and I think mine will fit in. Second, I plan on submitting Creating Esther to secular publishers. The book is not being written for the home-school audience, although I hope they will read it. But third and most importantly, all children, including those who are home-schooled, need to understand the real world or they won’t be able to handle adversity when it comes.

I think of these darker middle grade books as a vaccine. Vaccines give you low-grade (often dead) disease germs to build up an immunity so that the disease will not harm you when the live germs come on full-force. In the same way, reading realistic fiction helps immunize children against harmful emotional responses to real world tragedies and heartbreak.

As in real life, every ending doesn’t have to be happy, but it should have hope. That’s what happens in Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. The protagonist’s best friend dies in an accident when he’s not there to save her, and he takes it hard. But then he realizes that his younger sister needs him, and he finds he can go on living by helping her.

Life isn’t all sweetness and light, and children need to know that.

So don’t shy away from reality when writing middle grade fiction.

__________

The photograph at the head of this post shows Japanese American children getting vaccinated at the Santa Anita Assembly Center in Arcadia, California on April 6, 1942. Clem Albers took the picture as part of his official duties as an employee of the United States government. Because it is a government document, the photo is in the public domain.