Danika Dinsmore

Author / Educator / Activist

middle grade literature

MGM: When a Middle Grade Series Becomes a Young Adult Series (plus writing exercise)

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(For those who want to skip straight to the writing exercise, it’s at the bottom of the post)

We saw it happen with the Harry Potter series. In book one, Harry is 11 years old. That’s 6th grade. I remember the first book carried a lot of humour. It was  whimsical. Little Harry is more interested in magical candy than snogging a girl.

But by the time we get to the end, it’s a dark bloodfest with some serious snogging. This makes complete sense to me. What matters to a 6th grader is much different than what matters to a 12th grader. If you recall what it’s like going through high school, there were probably some dark and scary times. I know I experienced a lot of emotional turmoil.

For those kids who read along as the series was published, this was a very personal journey. Harry grew as his fans grew and they all lost their innocence together. What a magical experience that must have been for them.

But now all the books are out in the world. On Amazon, Harry Potter is listed in the description as “for ages 9 and up” for ALL the books in the series. Really? If you were taking the 7th book as a stand alone, would you give it to your 9-year-old?

(as a side note, this is an interesting description because rarely are books listed for “X and up.” They are usually very specific about age groups for children’s books)

When I was at the SCBWI Conference last summer I asked an editor at a large publisher about this phenomenon. If one is writing a middle grade series, “is it all right” or “what happens if” the characters grow older and suddenly they’ve stopped playing hide-and-seek and are now into young adult shenanigans. (Okay, so I didn’t use the word “shenanigans”)

All she said was, “Yeah, that happens.” She didn’t say it was wrong to do, but she did imply that it was a bit of an issue for publishers.

The reason I asked her is because I’m coming up against the same issue with my own series. Originally I was going to follow my young protagonist up until the point when she became a mother herself. I have since changed my mind and decided to only have her age a few years. However, something I find harder to address is that the story is getting darker as I go deeper into it and I’m already afraid I have isolated my youngest fans.

Are there any other series where this holds true? Where it starts as a MG read but creeps into the YA category as the series continues and the MC ages?

I only read the first 2 books of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but I started to wonder if Kinney had written a book for every year of school and the summers in between, wouldn’t that mean the MC was 15 at the end of the story? Does this ever become an issue?

For a list of more Middle Grade Mondayers, CLICK HERE

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TODAY’s WRITING WORKOUT

Inspired by this idea of “what matters” to your protagonist. . .

Set your timer for 5 minutes. Start at the top of the page with the following startline: The most precious person in my protagonist’s life is…

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 7 more minutes. Start with the following line: My protagonist hurts/disappoints this person when . . .

(if that startline doesn’t work for you, try My protagonist can’t bring herself to tell this person that . . .)

When the timer stops, Set your timer for 7-10 more minutes. Start with the following line: My protagonist redeems him/herself when . . . (or My protagonist reveals the truth when . . .)

Read your exercises, make notes, highlight what makes sense.

 

Holiday Writing Middle Grade Monday Workout (or something like that) with Harriet the Spy

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This is going to take some skill. I’m attempting to make my Middle Grade Monday entry and my Holiday Writing Workout somehow coalesce into a kind of genius new writing exercise via a book review.

I haven’t had much time to read lately, but an NPR mention of a lesser known Louise Fizthugh novel called Nobody’s Family is Going to Change (now on my reading list) reminded me about one of my favourite MG books when I was a kid. Harriet the Spy.


I loved this book so much I started my own neighborhood spy route – albeit nowhere near as risky as Harriet’s. I never snuck into a stranger’s house and besides, I’m pretty sure no one in my middle class neighborhood had a dumbwaiter I could hide in.

from Fizthugh’s bio on GoodReads:

Fitzhugh’s best-known book was Harriet the Spy, published in 1964 to some controversy since so many characters were far from admirable. It has since become a classic. As her New York Times’ obituary, published November 19, 1974, states: “The book helped introduce a new realism to children’s fiction and has been widely imitated”.

Harriet is the daughter of affluent New Yorkers who leave her in the care of her nanny, Ole Golly, in their Manhattan townhouse. Hardly the feminine girl heroine typical of the early 1960s, Harriet is a writer who notes everything about everybody in her world in a notebook which ultimately falls into the wrong hands.

Harriet is very much a Tom Boy, and in my teenage years I began to question Harriet’s sexual orientation, even though there was no intimacy of a sexual nature in the story at all. And I didn’t find out until recently that Fitzhugh herself was a lesbian.

As someone who has kept a diary since she could write, I completely understood the absolute horror when Harriet’s classmates read her journal (I was then so afraid of someone reading my old diaries that I went back and crossed out all the names of boys I’d had crushes on). Harriet becomes the outcast of her entire 6th grade. Even the “unpopular” kids are a part of a club they start. Not only is Harriet the only one in the class who is not a member, the club is specifically about catching spies, namely her.

ISOLATION

One of our greatest fears and anxieties when we are young is not belonging. Of being isolated from our friends. And there is nothing meaner than an ex-best friend, and nothing scarier than an ex-best friend who has a gang of buddies to gang up on us.

When I do character work I always think about the wounds that shape those character’s lives. Today I’m specifically thinking about the wound of isolation.That’s a deep chasm that extends into adulthood.

If we are writing a Middle Grade or YA story, the story itself might be about this wound of isolation and how we overcome it. Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak addresses this really well.

If we are writing adult literature, that wound of isolation can haunt our protagonist, creating a barrier between him/her getting what he/she wants (or needs).

WRITING WORKOUT:

Set your timer for 5 minutes. Start at the top of the page with the line: The wound of isolation that shapes my character’s life happens/happened when . . .

Write, don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t cross out.

When the timer stops, go to the center of that exercise, pull out the middle line, use that for your next start line, and write for 7 minutes more. Repeat for 10 minutes.

Now go back with a highlighter or another colour pen and mark the things that make sense to you.

For a list of other MIDDLE GRADE MONDAY writers, CLICK HERE

Middle Grade Mondays

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So, so, so behind on my rewrite. No Middle Grade Monday analysis for me today, but we all know this is generally a slow week in the Blog-0-Sphere.

Please visit the very dedicated and diligent MGMers who did post today. And happy holidays.

– The hit I SURVIVED series with Shannon O’Donnell
– Pam Torres With RACING THE MOON. Click HERE to read her review.
– Deb Marshall with SCARY SCHOOL (author interview and a giveaway)
– Gabrielle Prendergast champions THE IRON MAN.
-Anita Laydon Miller with MAN IN THE CINDER CLOUDS

Middle Grade Mondays: Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

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Author: Naomi Shihab Nye
Title: Habibi
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: 1997
ISBN: 0-689-80149-1

Naomi Shihab Nye is known more for her poetry than this novel, and as far as I know, Habibi is her only novel. I picked it up several years ago because I adore Naomi as a person, having met her several times on the poetry circuit. She’s the kind of person who automatically makes you smile when you see her coming your way. I am not exaggerating when I say she is one of the kindest writers I have ever met.

Habibi is the story of a 14-year-old Palestinian-American girl who is crushed when her father decides to move the family to Jerusalem the day after she gets her first kiss from a boy.

from School Library Journal:

When Liyana’s doctor father, a native Palestinian, decides to move his contemporary Arab-American family back to Jerusalem from St. Louis, 14-year-old Liyana is unenthusiastic. Arriving in Jerusalem, the girl and her family are gathered in by their colorful, warmhearted Palestinian relatives and immersed in a culture where only tourists wear shorts and there is a prohibition against boy/girl relationships. When Liyana falls in love with Omer, a Jewish boy, she challenges family, culture, and tradition, but her homesickness fades. Constantly lurking in the background of the novel is violence between Palestinian and Jew. It builds from minor bureaucratic annoyances and humiliations . . . to a bomb set off in a Jewish marketplace by Palestinians. It exacts a reprisal in which Liyana’s friend is shot and her father jailed.

There are many things to love about this book, which I recommend to upper middle graders through early YA. There are probably many books about teens coming to America and learning to fit in, but how many books are there in which a typical American teenager has to live in a challenging foreign environment?

The characters are engaging and real (partially due to the fact that Arab-American Nye lived part of her teenage years in the Palestinian city of Ramallah) and a budding romance foreshadows real danger.

As a poet, Nye’s grasp of language is a beautiful thing, capturing rich personalities of both of character and place. It is not a faced-paced story, but Nye creates tension that creeps about as Liyana explores the streets practicing her Arabic. The seriousness of what is happening around Liyana is balanced with a sweetness that reflects the author’s own childlike curiosity, but which is hardly naive. There is violence that brings the conflict home, but Nye is always one to leave a path to hope and friendship possible.

It is full-bodied poetically, sprinkled with humor, profound in its compelling personal search for peace, and engaging in the way it makes the protagonist’s experience universal.  I think it would make a terrific assignment for a 6th or 7th grade classroom, leading to a wealth of interesting discussion and history lessons.

A lovely multicultural character-driven upper middle grade read.

Middle Grade Mondays: Here Lies the Librarian

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I admitted not too long ago that I had never read anything by Richard Peck. After he was one of our surprise keynote speakers at SCBWI – I vowed I would pick up something by him simply because he is such a charming man.

For those upper middle graders who aren’t so much into fantasy, Here Lies the Libriarian might do the trick. Especially for kids who are into historical fiction and/or old cars.

But you don’t have to be a history or car buff to enjoy this story.

From GoodReads:

Peewee idolizes Jake, a big brother whose dreams of auto mechanic glory are fueled by the hard road coming to link their Indiana town and futures with the twentieth century. And motoring down the road comes Irene Ridpath, a young librarian with plans to astonish them all and turn Peewee’s life upside down. Here Lies the Librarian, with its quirky characters, folksy setting, classic cars, and hilariously larger-than-life moments, is vintage Richard Peck. An offbeat, deliciously wicked comedy that is also unexpectedly moving.

I’ve been thinking about voice recently b/c the last few YA novels I have read were lacking in voice. At least, they were a kind of “generic” teenage girl voice that I thought could have been interchanged.

In a recent post by Barbara Watson, she said that “middle grade voice is, perhaps, the most difficult voice to nail.” And it’s vital b/c without it, your reader might not care about the characters.

In Here Lies the Librarian, voice is one of the first things that drew me into the story. As soon as I started reading I thought, here’s something authentic and unique. The quirk also drew me in, both in Peck’s writing style (great turns of phrases) and his colorful characters. These are characters I think I would recognize if they were walking down the street.

Peck also does an amazing job of capturing the feel of 1914 rural midwest U.S. from 14-year-old’s perspective (and that’s all I’m going to say about the protag, because I don’t want to give anything away).

There’s a bit of excitement with some of the troublesome neighbors, but no real gore, which might be a plus for those moms out there concerned with violence in MG lit.

Now, I have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to Richard Peck, so please do share with me your favourite Peck books. I’ll keep a list of the ones in order of recommendations.

To see what other Middle Grade Mondayers are up to: CLICK HERE

Middle Grade Mondays: Homage to Anne McCaffrey (R.I.P. Nov 21, 2011)

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There is some debate over whether Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon series were sci fi or fantasy (she says sci fi) or whether to classify her work for YA or adult. Regardless, she was an amazing writer. And for precocious 6th graders who love science fiction and fantasy, she’s often one of the authors picked up. I haven’t read any of her work since I was a teenager, and I’m sad it’s taken her death to remind me of how talented she was.

For women writers of sci fi / fantasy, she paved the way.

 

From an I09 article by Charlie Jane Anders:

Anne McCaffrey wasn’t just the inventor of Pern, the world where a whole society is based on dragon-riding. She was also an incredibly influential author who helped transform the way science fiction and fantasy authors wrote about women, and the way all of us thought about bodies and selfhood. She was the first woman to win a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award, as well as a Grand Master of science fiction.

The woman published over 80 books in 45 years. (you do the math, that’s incredible)

For those middle graders out there I’d recommend:

Fantasy for “juveniles”

No One Noticed the Cat

If Wishes Were Horses

For Upper Middle Grade and YA:

the Acorna series

And everyone’s favourites (there are 26 of them in the series, but some are written by her son):

The Dragonriders of Pern series

If you’re going to pick up any McCaffrey, the Dragonriders series is always suggested. Some adults don’t enjoy the other two series mentioned above, but that may be because they were expecting something more mature like her other work.

Happy Middle Grade Monday . . . and now back to the last 1,000 words on my NaNo!

For other MGMers, see my list HERE

We Interrupt this NaNo for Middle Grade Monday: Found, Science Fiction

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NaNo Words to Date:  30,828
NaNo Goal Today: 1,500
Actual Words Today: TBA

Last Middle Grade Monday I mentioned a book called Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix. I’ve been on the lookout for a good Middle Grade science fiction book. There really don’t seem to be many around. Is it because the elements of science fiction are harder for kids at that age to wrap their heads around?

I decided to give Haddix’s award-winning Missing series a go.

For anyone confused about middle grade fiction, check these classifications out:

School Library Journal recommends it for grades 4-8
It won the “Sunshine State Young Readers Award” for grades 3-5
Barnes and Noble says it’s for ages 12 +
Simon and Schuster (the publisher) says it’s for ages 8-12

Personally, I agree with Barnes and Noble.

From GoodReads:

An unidentified airplane appears out of nowhere. When the aircraft is boarded, its only occupants are babies; once they are removed, the pilotless plane vanishes. Jonah and Chip, now teenagers, discover that they were among the “airborne orphans,” who seem to be somehow linked with missing children from history. Rather than forgetting the past, the two boys decide to venture into it, risking their survival to right the wrongs of time. Crisp time-travel adventure.

There are many things to like about this book, and I liked it enough to want to see what happens in the next book in the series. The set up is intriguing (a disappearing plane with nothing on board but 36 babies?). The mystery was mysterious enough to keep me guessing. The “twist” actually blind-sided me, which is rare in a “middle grade” (or even a YA) novel. It’s not exactly clear who the good guys and bad guys are, and even so, when you find out, there’s a lot of grey area because of their motivations.

Things are not black and white in this book, which is great for someone like me, but challenging for younger readers.

The “fight” sequences weren’t particularly dazzling, but the action and suspense kept the plot moving. And, for those worried about violence in children’s books, there are tazers and stun guns and danger in this, but nothing bloody happens. It’s pretty clean in that respect.

As for the time travel element, which is always tricky, I thought Maddix did a good job of setting up the “rules” around this for her story.

There were only a few things that nagged at me while reading this book. One is that I actually think it should have been written for a slightly older audience than it is intended. The three main characters are the protagonist Jonah (13), his friend Chip (13), and Jonah’s little sister Katherine (12). First, the kids just acted older than they are, especially Katherine. I can stand a bit of precociousness in young characters, but she was mature beyond her years, especially her dialogue. I honestly kept forgetting that she was in supposed to be in 6th grade.

In addition, there’s this small subplot that Chip might have a crush on Katherine, and vice verse. I know I had crushes when I was that age, but it’s discussed in a way that makes it sound like they might act on this crush and are left alone in several situations. It just struck me as odd. Most likely because when I grew up we had Junior High School (7th and 8th grade separated from both Elementary and High School), and no 7th grader would ever have said they had a crush on a 12 year old.

As I said, I’m intrigued enough to keep reading. And if you’ve been searching for some MG/YA science fiction, I recommend you give this one a try. It’s a pretty quick read even at 320 pages.

 

Middle Grade NaNoWriMo

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Current NaNo Word Count:  15,072
Today’s Goal: 1,800 words

Actual Words Written: 2,031
Total Actual Words: 17,103

lol. I’m double dutying it today because I want to post about both NaNo and Middle Grade Lit.

I’ve seen several NaNo writers puzzling over whether their novel is middle grade or YA. I blogged about some of those differences in a post called Middle Grade Lit, What is it?

I also blogged about the difference between upper and lower middle grade HERE. Middle Grade has a lot of grey area because at that time in a young reader’s life, their reading, social, mental, and other skills are changing and growing so quickly.

I’ve been reading a range of middle grade and YA books geared towards different ages lately and here’s a sampling of how I’d categorize them, presented in ascending age level:

The Night Fairy by Laura Amy Schlitz: younger middle grade – good and bad are more black and white, simple story and simple character arc, no sophisticated problem solving. I’d say for 7-9 year olds. Maybe some precocious 6 year olds, but the spider scene might be a bit scary.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik: middle, middle grade. lol. 8-12 year olds. More challenging than Night Fairy because of more mature themes. More complex story. Requires being able to visualize more.

Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck: slightly above the middle, middle grade. 9 – 12 year olds. There’s more subtlety here. A reader would have to be sophisticated enough to read between the lines an understand a more challenging POV, one of someone from the early 20th century.


Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix: upper middle grade (11-14) – School Library Journal says grades 4-8 but I disagree. The time travel elements are probably too much for younger kids to wrap their heads around and some of the ideas are pretty sophisticated. There’s a lot more to puzzle out. (side note: this book classification actually confused me because it felt like it should have been a YA novel – I’ll review this later in the month)

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One thing people tend to fall back on is the age of the protagonist. Kids tend to read about characters who are slightly older than they are.

But this is not always the case. I am currently reading John Connolly’s Book of Lost Things (marvelous and disturbing). The protagonist is a 12-year-old boy and it’s definitely not a kids book. The writing is luxurious, sophisticated, and part fairy tale, part psychological study.

As far as NaNo goes, if you don’t know yet what age your target market is, just write the story and see what you have. You can decide then, or ask for help from fellow writers, and make any necessary changes in the rewrite.

Have a great week NaNoBots!

Middle Grade Mondays: How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found

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I love this book.

from GoodReads:

Margaret’s father died in a mysterious drowning accident when she was eight years old. Four years later, her mother still won’t talk about it — in fact, she doesn’t talk about much of anything. But when Margaret’s mother takes her and her little sister, Sophie, to a strange abandoned mansion and puts a FOR SALE BY OWNER sign in the front yard, Margaret is determined to solve the puzzle of her family, once and for all.

Armed with three strange clues — a swimming medal, a key, and a handwritten comic book — Margaret returns to the mansion alone. With the help of Boyd, the lonely, comic-book-obsessed boy next door, she discovers that truth can be stranger than fiction — depending on who’s telling the story.

Years ago, I was fortunate to be in the University of Washington screenwriting program with Sara Nickerson. And, although she’ll probably deny it, she was hands down the most talented writer in the class. I knew How to Disappear when it was just a baby and in its original screenplay format. When Sara later adapted it as a novel, she inspired me to do the same with one of my own scripts, and we both discovered that we loved playing in the world of children’s literature.

This is not speculative fiction, but the mystery makes you wonder if supernatural things are afoot, and the comic book pages do creepily (is that a word?) coincide with the action of the story. Sara has a talent for creating compelling characters, and the ones in this book are so real you think you’d recognize them on the street. The relationship between protagonist Margaret and her precocious little sister is totally believable. As well, Sara is spot on capturing the voice of a socially awkward 12-year-old. If I were 10 years old when I first found this story, I probably would have read it over and over again (as opposed to only the three times I’ve read it as an adult – lol).

Entwined with Margaret’s story, are shorter chapters about Boyd, an equally lonely pre-teen who lives next door to the mysterious house Margaret’s mom is selling, and who is obsessed with the handmade Ratt comics. The children are forced together and learn to trust each other, something not so easy with either of them.

Supporting character Tina Louise, Margaret’s first and only friend at school, is one of my favourite middle grade characters. We only get her for a few chapters, but her presence is throughout as Margaret continually asks herself, “What would Tina Louise do?”

If you’re looking for a spectacular coming-of-age upper middle grade novel, that also features pages from the mysterious Ratt comic book, this book is for you.

I wrote to Sara to see if she’d answer a few questions about her work:

Where did you get the story idea? Is any of this based on real people or events?

I thought of the story while I was on a camping trip with my nieces.  At the time, they were about the ages of Margaret and Sophie.  I didn’t actually have a specific idea for the story – more that I wanted to write a story for them, the kind of story I loved as a kid.  That meant it had to have mystery, suspense, and a kid going off on her own.  (And donuts).  I was writing screenplays at the time, so I wrote it first as a screenplay.

What made you decide to turn it into a novel?

I was working in television and film when I wrote this story as a screenplay, but so many people thought it would be a good novel, that I finally listened to them.  I was lucky because one of those people was a fabulous editor at HarperCollins.

You have such a great way of capturing that middle school voice. Why do you suppose that is?

Thank you.  I think it’s because I love those books – I loved them when I was a kid and I love them now.  I read all the time.  And I’m around kids all the time.

Do you still write screenplays or have you found your home in children’s novels?

Right now I’m working on two new middle grade novels.  I would definitely like to write another screenplay, but only if it seemed like it was a story that HAD to be a movie.  I’m very happy writing novels for kids.

Middle Grade Mondays (on Tuesday) – Standing the Test of Time: The Phantom Tollbooth

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Standing the Test of Time: The Phantom Tollbooth

One of my all time favourite middle grade novels is The Phantom Tollbooth. I probably read this book a dozen times when I was young.

Recently, because Norton Juster was a keynote speaker at the summer SCBWI conference and it was the 50th anniversary of the book (!), I took a look to see if it stood the test of time. And it most certainly does.

It’s a fun coming of age quest story. Wikipedia calls it a modern fairy tale, but I’d call it contemporary or light fantasy. And it’s Juster’s colourful characters and quirky wordplay that make the story truly unique.

It’s about a bored young boy named Milo who receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and, having nothing better to do, drives through it in his toy car. It transports him to a land called the Kingdom of Wisdom where things have been chaos ever since princesses Rhyme and Reason were banished by their brothers: the kings of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, who are not speaking to one another over a words vs. numbers dispute. Mile acquires two companions, Tock the watchdog and the Humbug, and goes on a quest to rescue the princesses.

This is a great story for ages 9 and up (younger kids might trip up on some of the vocabulary), boys and girls alike. It’s a great teaching tool because of Norton’s way of making language idioms literal. Like when Milo gets stuck in the Doldrums, has to jump to the island of Conclusion, or confronts the noisy Dynne. The wordplay goes on and on and the message in the end is that life is far from dull.

If you have never read this book, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s also a great book to read with children.