It may be hard to understand why your
hoodie, locs, or braids scare people.
And gets old watching people tense up when you walk past them on the street.
Tiring that the bass of your
voice is seen as a threat no matter what words come out of your mouth
Wrong that you get sent to the
guidance office for talking out of turn, while your White peers are given a
Wack that your style, slang and
swag are monetized in commercials, but you’re given a lecture in the halls and
by the media for being you
Confusing that toxic
masculinity is forced upon you as both something to be proud of and something
to be feared for
A disservice that your antics
are labeled behavioral issues while your White peers are “immature,” “just
being boys,” or “troubled” enough to be offered help
Infuriating when you’re gunned
Despicable when those we trust
to raise you up, use you for ill
You don’t have to be what people think they
see. And what you do as a child isn’t who you are forever, no matter how many
people try to make you believe it.
We see you.
You are loved.
Keep your head up!
“Until you’ve shared
my tears, known my fears, in all my years
Only till then, you only know what you think you
– Raheem Devaughn
Paula Chase is the author of the critically acclaimed, So Done. The companion novel, Dough Boys, is a call to see the humanity of young Black males. Chase is the author of seven kidlit novels – a five-book YA series and two books for middle schoolers. She is also the co-founder of The Brown Bookshelf, a website dedicated to highlighting Black kidlit authors under the public’s radar.
I had already written several middle grade novels before I began writing the DIARY OF AN ICE PRINCESS chapter book series (Scholastic, July 2019). I will admit that my first thought was, “Oh, this should be easier.” After all, at 6,000-10,000 words, chapter books are a fraction of the size of middle grade novels, right?
Oh, how quickly I was humbled! Chapter books might be
shorter in word count, but they still pack just as much story and character
into their pages. And chapter book authors must build a compelling story not
just once, but multiple times for a series.
Luckily, my daughters are now in prime chapter book-reading
territory, and we have read many fantastic series together: JASMINE TOGUCHI (by
Debbi Michiko Florence), JADA JONES (by Kelly Starling Lyons), IVY AND BEAN (by
ANNIE BARROWS). I turned back to these favorite series and read many more with
my “writer-eyes” activated. What made these beloved books so good? How did the
authors work their magic?
I discovered 4 key essentials that made my work easier:
1. Your character should stand out from the crowd. Mercy Watson loves hot buttered toast. Alvin Ho is afraid of everything. The main character is the heart of a series, and the reason that kids keep returning for more books. Memorable chapter book characters have something that sets them apart. Whatever you choose, make it authentic to your character and relevant to the storyline. And make sure it’s something that you will enjoy writing about again and again and again. And if you use a device to break up the text – such as a diary format, text messages, fun facts, etc. limit it to just one device, otherwise things can get confusing for young readers.
2. Give your character room to keep growing. We novelists know that our characters need to grow and change from the beginning of our books to the end. But a chapter book MC will have to grow and change in every book in the series. In other words, a chapter book MC needs to be like the kids who will read about them. Think about the kids you know: they are constantly learning and growing a little more every day.
The MC in DIARY OF AN ICE PRINCESS just wants to be a normal kid. Her problem is that she isn’t normal at all – she’s a magical ice princess whose family controls the wind and weather. This sets up countless possible storylines and numerous opportunities for chaos and silliness!
3. Keep things fairly simple. Chapter book readers are in the early stages of getting hooked on reading. You want your books to seal the deal. Some kids may be reading your books independently; others may be listening to an adult read them out loud. You aren’t limited to vocabulary lists the way “easy readers” are. But you do need to make sure that your text is encouraging, enticing, and supportive of emerging readers. Chapters and paragraphs should be on the shorter side. Sentences don’t necessarily need to be short, but they should be simple to read for kids who are just starting to learn the rules of grammar.
Your overall storyline should also be streamlined. In a novel, you may have B, C, and D subplots, and an entire cast of supporting characters who all have their own emotional journeys. In a chapter book, there just isn’t room to weave all that together. For my series, I decided that each book would have two storylines: a “school” problem and a “family” problem that get resolved by the end of each book.
4. Problems should be age-appropriate – and the MC needs to be the one to solve them! This was actually a tricky one for me to figure out! Because chapter books are aimed at the young elementary school set, the topics and tone tend to be light, funny, and accessible. The problems that your MC faces will be similar to problems that any 6-9 year old might face: losing a friend, having anxiety, finding their voice, etc.
My main character, Lina, is descended from a long line of royal beings with magical weather powers. When I first started drafting the series, I found it tricky to find a balance between presenting her with a problem that wasn’t too dark and scary (ice monsters turned out to be too frightening!) but that would challenge her enough so she could grow. I finally decided that in the first book, SNOW PLACE LIKE HOME, Lina’s struggle would be that her powers are different from other members of her family. Her parents are loving and supportive of her, but it’s not until Lina realizes for herself that her uniqueness is her strength that she is able to control her magic. She solves the problem through inward reflection, which is something young readers can relate to and achieve (even if they don’t have winter magic!).
The happy thing I learned about writing this series is that once I settled on my character and the recurring story elements, each book flowed more easily than the last – though I will never say that writing chapter books is easy! The trick is to make it look easy, and it turns out that is actually a lot of hard work.
Christina Soontornvat grew up behind the counter of her parents’ Thai restaurant in a small Texas town with her nose stuck in a book. She is very proud of both her Thai and her Texan roots, and makes regular trips to both Weatherford and Bangkok to see her beloved family members (and eat lots and lots of Thai food!). In addition to being an author, Christina holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a master’s degree in Science Education. She spent a decade working in the science museum field, where she designed programs and exhibits to get kids excited about science. She is passionate about STEM (science, technology engineering, and math), and loves learning new things. She lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, two young children, and one old cat.
been through the first leg of our journey. It’s taken us to a world of Kung-fu
on ice, a zombie-infested Old West, a heart-pounding medieval Scotland, an idyllic
17th century England, a dangerous steampunk metropolis, where legendary
beasts exist, and inside a fairy-tale storybook. Our characters emerged
stronger for their struggles—some injured, some with new realizations of who they
are and what they could be, and all of them ready for another adventure.
seven authors chatting today, what came next was another book: our debut
novel’s sequel. In some cases, it’s the second in a multi-book series, and
others it’s the book that ends the series, and in some we just don’t know yet.
But no matter what, it’s Book 2, an important installment in each author’s
journey, and a book linked with the first that introduces its own conflicts.
I’m in my own sequel journey just now, and I wanted to hear what some of my fellow 2018 debut authors were thinking as they brought their characters and worlds out for a second act. And so, this is our story.
To start, we’ll talk about how our sequels began.
~ Diane Magras
Henry Lien (Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions): The sequel begins approximately 2
seconds after the end of book one. In book one, Peasprout Chen came to a new
country to study at an academy that teaches an art form combining kung fu and
figure skating. Peasprout learned about friendship, the dual nature of
immigrant identity, and other important things, only to have those truths
turned upside down at the beginning of book 2 with the arrival of a very
unusual new student from her homeland.
Brad McLelland and Louis Sylvester (Fang of Bonfire Crossing): Our sequel picks up a few days
after the finale of Legends of the Lost
Causes (Book 1). Led by orphan Keech Blackwood, our young riders find
themselves on the 1850s trail to Wisdom, a settlement in Kansas Territory,
where they must collect new information in their quest to bring the evil
Reverend Rose and his henchmen to justice. Along the way, the kids encounter
the nefarious villain, Big Ben Loving, as well as a deadly shapeshifter that’s
been tracking them.
Diane Magras(The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s
Daughter): My sequel starts about two hours after the first book ends
in a village hut where my protagonist, Drest, wakes to the sound of a crow’s
coded warning of danger: A single knight is drawing near. Drest has just
escaped Faintree Castle and its fleet of murderous knights with some beloved
people in tow whom they want dead. She must decide in the very first chapter
whether she can protect those she loves by hiding, or by confronting her enemy.
Her decision leads to a price on her head that she could have never imagined.
Melinda Beatty(Riverbound): Only Fallow can see lies–an ability that’s brought her to serve the king of Orstral. But she’s determined to get home any way she can, and, with her friend Lark, stop the persecution of the river-dwelling Ordish. But palace life is tricky and Only needs to figure out who to trust–and quickly!
Jeff Seymour (Nadya Skylung and the Masked Kidnapper): As Nadya Skylung’s cloudship Orion docks among the glorious, dangerous steampunk skyscrapers of Far Agondy, three pirates the crew are turning over to the city’s police state a daring escape. Pursuing them despite her captain ordering her not to for her own safety, Nadya discovers the city’s children are being snatched by a sinister crime lord known as Silvermask. And when he takes a personal interest in her, it’ll take all her wits and courage to keep herself, and her friends, out of his grasp.
Lija Fisher (The Cryptid Keeper): My sequel begins with Clivo and the Myth Blasters diving deeper into the world of legendary creature seeking, while desperately avoiding the bad guys (and the prying eyes of Aunt Pearl!).
Tara Gilboy (Rewritten): My sequel picks up six months after the end of book one. Gracie and the other storybook characters are living with their author, Gertrude Winters, who has given up writing stories, afraid they will come to life like Gracie’s tale did.
What did you like most about
writing your sequel?
Henry Lien: My favorite thing about writing
the sequel was dealing with the specter of Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which I consider the best sequel of all
time. I daily, maybe hourly, reminded myself that that was the high bar of
sequels and I wanted intensely to write a sequel that made a triple leap
forward like Rowling did with Azkaban. I also wanted to write the most
spectacular, Miyazaki-sequel action sequences I could imagine for this book. I
wanted to create my own diverse Harry Potter with an anime soul.
Brad McLelland and Louis
Sylvester: Though writing this book presented plenty challenges, we loved getting
to move our young characters into a brand new space with trickier trials and
scarier encounters. We particularly enjoyed the chance to explore our
characters’ motivations and back stories more deeply, then letting those new
pieces of information illuminate our plot decisions. Writing a series can be a
delicate endeavor, but even with the complications that came with pushing our
story onward, we think writing the second book allowed us to stretch our legs a
bit more. We also loved being able to introduce two new exciting characters who
become trailmates on Keech’s quest. We think readers will fall in love with
these two new characters, as well as enjoy the stepped-up elements of suspense
and danger. (Beware the Chamelia! Just sayin’.)
Diane Magras: I loved having the chance to
deepen my characters’ stories and their relationships. My sequel gave room for
Drest to really grow. While running for her life and strategizing how she’ll
escape the sentence on her head, Drest questions who she is and what she could
be in a way that goes a step beyond the first book. Other characters struggle
with their identities too, such as Emerick, the injured young knight from the
first book. The sequel gave me room to deepen their friendship and show each of
them take enormous risks for the other. And it also gave me the chance to have
scenes with Drest’s brothers. In the first book, readers heard only their
voices as Drest embarked on her journey. In the sequel, I could show them
interacting with each other—bickering, but also supporting—with new insults!
Melinda Beatty: I loved visiting with Only again
and throwing everything I had at her and her friends, just to watch them
survive, thrive and overcome! I also enjoyed writing some new characters to
bring more humor to the story, like the Thorvald royals and my “fishmongers”
Warin and Dodd. Funny is where I live as a writer, and getting to write these
bits were like literary “dessert” for me!
Jeff Seymour: I absolutely loved writing the
action sequences. Staging the thrilling chases, nail-biting escapes, and
dangerous fights that are the hallmark of a Nadya book with Nadya on crutches
(recovering from losing her leg in the last book) made them much more creative
than they would’ve been otherwise. Nadya fights Silvermask and his goons on
zip-lines, with hang gliders, and using a hand-cranked recumbent bicycle. She
finds ways to work around and with her physical differences to come out on top.
I love those scenes, and I still like to go back and re-read them.
Lija Fisher: I loved writing this sequel
because I got to do so while on a writing residency through Aspen Words and the
Catto Shaw Foundation. I spent a month in a cabin in Woody Creek, CO (home of
Hunter S. Thompson!) where my only responsibility was to write. It was heaven.
Since I already knew the characters and the world, I could focus on the plot
and fully immerse myself in creating a fun adventure with lots of mystery and
even more humor!
Tara Gilboy: I loved being able to spend more
time with my characters. I also loved studying different kinds of stories and
thinking about what each genre’s tropes and clichés are. For this book, I
wanted to play around with the horror genre, and so I read a lot of classic
gothic horror novels like Dracula and
Frankenstein and thought about what
elements are commonly used in horror and how to both poke fun at those tropes
and use them in new ways. I then also had to consider why Gertrude would write
a story like that, since she is the author in my book responsible for creating
the world of the horror story.
What was the hardest part of
writing your sequel?
Henry Lien: Both Peasprout Chen books are
very quickly-paced clockwork puzzles, like Prisoner
of Azkaban, with a number of huge secrets hiding in plain view. That kind
of book requires precise choreography to pull off in a way that doesn’t seem
effortful or contrived. Thus, I created a coded spreadsheet approach so that I
could see the progression of each clue for each plot thread, where it occurred
in terms of pages, where it occurred in terms of calendar days of the school year
in the book, how evenly spaced the action sequences and major emotional
confrontations were, etc. It was enlightening because I could step back and see
my book like a musical score or a multi-floor dungeon map like in video games
such as Legend of Zelda.
Brad McLelland and Louis
Sylvester: The hardest drafting for us didn’t really arrive until the midpoint of
the book, where our Lost Causes ride into a dangerous town and encounter all
sorts of deadly challenges. Because this situation involved lots of complicated
movements around a new geographical space, we had to put our thinking caps on
when mapping out our characters’ steps and decisions. How can we keep our
narrative rolling smoothly without bogging the reader down with details? This
was the main question we kept in mind while writing – and to tell the truth, it
wasn’t easy! The Lost Causes’ final battle was also quite difficult to draft,
again because of numerous players on the field. Writing the action one sentence
at a time, and using lots of carefully outlined notes, helped us tackle the
harrowing finale (which also helped us set up the pieces for an EPIC final Book
3 in the series).
Diane Magras: For me, it was getting the
right angle of this story to tell. Before this draft, I’d written a very
different Book 2 that reached a different conclusion with scenes I loved (including
a castle rescue and a village confrontation scene that don’t now appear in the
book). I knew what the point of the story had to be, but it wasn’t about Drest
serving others. This had to be around her. And with the obvious necessary
goal—regaining the castle—I needed to make it essential to her and not just the
other characters. Remembering a tidbit of medieval law—the concept of the
wolf’s head—helped me realize the moral focus of the story. Having Drest run for
her own life and not for the sake of others added a new urgency—and gave me an
excuse to show off her incredible physical training in more than one scene.
Melinda Beatty: The book was almost totally
re-written between drafts 2 and 3– and I only had about 3 weeks to do it! It
was the most challenging things I’ve ever done, but at the same time, one of
the most rewarding and confidence building. I’ve always thought of myself as a
slow writer–painfully slow sometimes–but having such a short time to totally
re-imagine my story showed me that I definitely have it in me to work in a way
I’d never thought possible.
Jeff Seymour: Getting Nadya’s recovery from amputation right. I’m
not an amputee, so I worked with the author Kati Gardner, who is, on the book.
Folding her recommendations into the story in ways that felt natural to it was
sometimes challenging. For instance, she recommended I avoid using the term
“stump,” which some amputees don’t like. But “residual
limb,” the less controversial term, felt too medical for Nadya’s voice. So
I settled on having Nadya name her residual limb “the Mighty Lady,”
(nicknames being something real-life amputees sometimes do too, and definitely
a Nadya thing to do) and she refers to it as “the Lady” through most
of the book.
Lija Fisher: The hardest part of writing
this sequel was doing it so quickly! I wrote the entire book during my
month-long residency because I was determined to make the most use of my time.
I wrote from 4:30am to about 3pm every day, and keeping my brain in ‘creative
mode’ for that many hours was really hard. But also fun! The nice thing about
being in the mountains is that whenever I had no idea what came next, I’d go
out for a hike or bike ride and let my brain rest until the next idea showed
Tara Gilboy: The hardest part of writing this book was
incorporating all of what had happened in Unwritten,
the first book, without confusing my readers. I knew that some readers would
have read the first book, but others may not, and so I wanted to tell a story
that could stand on its own for new readers, but also one that built on what
had already happened in book one. I really struggled to find ways to weave in
bits of information about things that had happened in book one without boring
the reader with lots of summary and backstory. My editor helped me a lot with
that in revision, and I hope I was successful!
Our sequels in ten words:
Henry Lien: Kung-fu figure-skating boarding
school adventure about immigration and teamwork.
Brad McLelland and Louis
Sylvester: Expect new friendships forged, spookier situations, and a few seriously
Diane Magras: Castles, swords, betrayals,
secrets, loyal friends, family, and a daring battle.
Melinda Beatty: Adventure, friendship, learning about privilege,
conspiracy, and lovable rogues.
Jeff Seymour: A heroine on crutches, a
steampunk metropolis, thrilling fights, and a big twist at the end.
Lija Fisher: Adventure! Humor! Mystery!
Search for the unknown! Cryptozoology! Friendship! Crazy gadgets!
Tara Gilboy: Spooky mansions, a magic book, a scary beast, and accepting the bad parts of ourselves.
More about our books :
Henry Lien/Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions/January 22, 2019
Now in her Second Year at Pearl Famous Academy of Skate and Sword, Peasprout Chen strives to reclaim her place as a champion of wu liu, the sport of martial arts figure skating. But, with the new year comes new competition, and Peasprout’s dreams are thwarted by an impressive transfer student. Yinmei is the heir to the Shinian throne and has fled her country for Pearl. When she excels both academically and socially, Peasprout begins to suspect that Yinmei is not a refugee at all but a spy. When the Empress of Shin threatens to invade the city of Pearl, Peasprout makes a bold decision. To keep her enemy close, Peasprout joins Yinmei’s “battleband,” a team that executes elaborate skating configurations that are part musical spectacle, part defensive attack. In Henry Lien’s Peasprout Chen: Battle of Champions, Peasprout guides her battleband on a mission to save Pearl, and learns what it truly means to be a leader.
Brad McLelland and Louis
Sylvester/Battle of Bonfire Crossing/February
Keech Blackwood and his band of fellow orphans demand justice for their fallen families. But the road to retribution is a long and hard-fought journey. After defeating Bad Whiskey Nelson, the man who burned Keech’s home to the ground, the Lost Causes have a new mission: find Bonfire Crossing, the mysterious land that holds clues to the whereabouts of the all-powerful Char Stone. Along the way they’ll have to fend off a shapeshifting beast, a swarm of river monsters, and a fearsome desperado named Big Ben Loving who conjures tornadoes out of thin air. It’s an epic standoff between the Lost Causes and the outlaw Reverend Rose, a powerful sorcerer who would be unstoppable with the Stone in his possession. With the world—and vengeance—hanging in the balance, the Lost Causes are ready for battle.
Diane Magras/ The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter:
March 5, 2019
Brave warrior, bloodthirsty villain, vicious lass, wolf’s head—Drest can see herself in most of the names she’s been called, except the last. Wolf’s head. It’s a sentence of death-without-trial that’s been decreed by the ruler of Faintree Castle: the traitor Sir Oswyn. And one of his knights is determined to earn the sentence’s rich reward. It’s also a sentence that Drest tries to keep secret when her father and brothers (the Mad Wolf and his war-band) flee the castle men who are hunting them, leaving her in a village to protect the deposed and wounded young Lord Faintree. But word of the wolf’s head travels, and Drest is soon in grave danger. Unless she’s willing to run for the rest of her life or hide as an ordinary maiden, her only hope is for Lord Faintree to regain his power and reverse the sentence. Drest must decide who she really is and how much longer she is willing to risk her life before Sir Oswyn’s knight catches his wolf.
Melinda Beatty/Riverbound/June 4, 2019
Only Fallow can see lies–a cunning so powerful that the King insists on keeping her in the palace, tasked with helping him flush out traitors. When the King’s counselor, Lamia, tells Only of her plan to oust the King and put his daughter on the throne, Only is eager to help. Though Only’s cunning would be useful to any ruler, the Princess had promised to send Only home when she becomes Queen. But Only soon learns the truth is a complicated matter–especially when the fate of a country hangs in the balance. Now wound tight in a twisted plot, Only must set the record straight to stop the destruction of everything–and everyone–she holds dear.
Skylung and the Masked Kidnapper/June 25, 2019
Nadya Skylung paid a high price when she defeated the pirates on the cloudship Remora. She lost her leg. But has she lost her nerve too? When Nadya and the rest of the crew of the cloudship Orion reach the port of Far Agondy, they have a lot to do, including a visit to Machinist Gossner’s workshop to have a prosthetic made for Nadya. But though the pirates are far away across the Cloud Sea, Nadya and her friends are still not safe. A gang leader called Silvermask is kidnapping skylung and cloudling children in Far Agondy. When Nadya’s friend Aaron is abducted, Nayda will stop at nothing to save him and the other missing kids, and put a stop to Silvermask once and for all.
Lija Fisher/ The Cryptid Keeper/ August 20, 2019
Clivo and the Myth Blasters are back on the trail of the immortal cryptid in this conclusion to a monstrously funny middle-grade duology by Lija Fisher. Life has gotten complicated for thirteen-year-old Clivo Wren. After taking up his deceased father’s mission to find the extraordinary creature whose blood grants everlasting life, Clivo is spending his summer not at camp or hanging out with his friends, but jetting all over the world tracking cryptids—while keeping his aunt Pearl in the dark about his dangerous adventures. At the same time, a shocking development unveils the truth about Clivo’s enemies, and the cryptids themselves are posing trouble at every turn. With the help of his crew of Myth Blasters, Clivo is going to need all of the tools, gadgets, and training he has to prevent the immortal cryptid from falling into the wrong hands—and to keep Aunt Pearl off the case.
Tara Gilboy/Rewritten/April 7, 2020
After learning the truth about her own fairy tale, twelve-year-old
Gracie wants nothing more than to move past the terrible things author Gertrude
Winters wrote about her and begin a new chapter in the real world. If only
things were going as planned. On the run from the evil Queen Cassandra, the
characters from Gracie’s story have all been forced to start over, but some of
them cannot forget Gracie’s checkered past. Even worse, Gracie discovers that
her story is still being written in Cassandra’s magic book, the Vademecum. As
long as Cassandra has the Vademecum, none of the characters are safe, including
Gracie’s mom and dad. In a desperate attempt to set things right, Gracie finds
herself transported into another one of Gertrude’s tales—but this one is a
horror story. Can Gracie face her destiny and the wild beast roaming the night,
to rewrite her own story?
Kids need books that carry them from middle grade to young adult. They need stories that challenge them, dive deep, explore ambiguity in the world, and center on complex characters. And, as I’ve heard from several educators, they also need stories that don’t contain explicit sex, drugs, and swearing, elements that can be more prevalent in young adult.
The good news? These books exist, and the publishing industry has categorized them as “Upper Middle Grade.” But it can be difficult to find them, especially since there is confusion over where they should be shelved. I have seen my debut novel, The Prophet Calls, placed in both the young adult and middle grade sections of bookstores and libraries.
In order to help pinpoint these books, I worked with fellow Upper MG authors. Together, we have compiled a “Starter List of Upper MG Books” that includes recent and coming-soon titles from 2018, 2019, and 2020. This is not an exclusive list. Rather, it is a place to get started. If you are aware of another title, please feel free to name it in the comments as we all benefit from sharing these “just right” stories for tweens and teens.
As you can
see from the list, many of us are passionate about writing stories that bridge
the gap between middle grade and YA. I love writing Upper MG because it
provides a safe space for starting difficult conversations about topics such as
racism, female empowerment, mental health, grief, religion, poverty, toxic
masculinity, and more. Kids are already exposed to and talking about these
things, but books can give us a launching point to have thoughtful discussions.
These stories offer readers exposure to the world around them and, by doing so,
provide them with one of the greatest gifts of reading: empathy.
with a few author friends about why their work focuses on Upper MG, and here’s
what they said:
I was writing YA, I was told my stories were too ‘sweet’ for high school
readers. So, I began telling MG stories. I didn’t realize that, by MG
standards, my books were more edgy than usual. I can’t win. All I know is my MG
is literally the same as my YA: young people dealing with what life throws at
them. Maybe some people forget that young people actually live in the same
world adults do. I don’t, and I tell stories to help them see their way
—Paula Chase, author of So Done and Dough Boys
“Middle school and upper elementary kids are facing issues we
didn’t when we were kids. It’s a hard truth, but something we adults need to
acknowledge. Not engaging kids on these issues doesn’t make these issues go
away—it just makes kids feel we don’t get them. And I fear it makes kids turn
away from books. So we need to give kids books that are just right: not too
young, not too old. Not too edgy, but not too innocent, either.”
—Barbara Dee, author of Halfway Normal and Maybe He
Just Likes You
“Two upper middle grade students were on my book-signing line.
When they reached me, one said, ‘I know parts of your book by heart.’ I said,
‘Let me hear it.’ He looked into the air and said a line so perfect that you’d
think he wore an earbud and was repeating my audiobook. I said, ‘Wow. You
recite books! You must love books,’ and he said, ‘No. I hate books. I’m
allergic to them.’ The librarian with his class told me, ‘Thank you for writing
for their ages.’ Getting students so hooked to books that they memorize lines
that help them navigate the tough years of middle and high school fuels me to
—Torrey Maldonado, author of Tight and What Lane?
“I taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade for ten years, and my students
mostly gravitated to young adult novels because middle grade books felt too
young to them. There was nothing wrong with that . . . except that they
were often reading about much older characters who were dealing with very
different experiences and concerns, and they didn’t always see themselves
reflected in what they read. I wrote Up for Airwith that 6th-to-8th-grade
audience in mind. I wanted to write about a rising eighth grader who ‘really feels like an eighth grader,’ as my
former students put it, and I wanted to delve into issues that I saw lots of
kids grappling with, but couldn’t often find in middle grade fiction, such as
the social pressures of having older friends and the complicated types of
attention that come along with developing a new kind of body.”
-Laurie Morrison, coauthor of Every Shiny Thing and author of Up for Air
“I write upper middle grade because it’s a literature defined by
brightness and hope. In upper middle grade, you can explore material that is as
weighty, ambitious, or serious as in any other literature. However, the deal in
upper MG is that you have to show the readers a way out of the darkness into
light. It’s much easier to avoid serious subject matter or write a cheaply
cynical novel than write a novel with serious themes that nonetheless offers
realistic and earned hope. It’s much easier to hide from or complain about the world
than it is to envision a better world. One of those things is more useful, in
my opinion, especially to upper MG readers as they grapple with a dawning
awareness of the world we live in and how to meet that world with a productive
approach. Also, I’m into fun, humor, and action, and the upper MG readership
isn’t too cool yet to admit they like fun, humor, and action.”
—Henry Lien, author of the Peasprout Chen series
As you can see, this
endeavor to write Upper MG is near to our hearts. But we must work together—authors,
educators, and parents—to help our kids find the books they need by bridging
the gap between middle grade and YA in order to sustain a new generation of
Melanie Sumrow received her
undergraduate degree in religious studies and has maintained a long-term
interest in studying social issues. Before becoming a writer, Melanie worked as
a lawyer for more than sixteen years, with many of her cases involving children
and teens. Her debut novel, The
Prophet Calls, was selected as a 2018
Writers’ League of Texas Book Award Finalist and her next novel, The Inside
Battle, publishes March 3, 2020.
Annalise Meriwether, a kindhearted eleven-year-old girl with purple hair and eyes, first appeared to me on July 28th, 2016. She was chasing a fluffy white cat in a top hat and monocle through a midnight field and looked scared to tears. A curse marked her left palm in the shape of a broken black heart. The moonlit sky was cracked in half. Black wolves prowled the dark forest’s perimeter, ethereal white crows cawed overhead, and the fields surrounding her were charred black. The atmosphere was tense and darkly magical, yet Annalise gave off this aura of lightness—a sincerity, gentleness, and unwavering optimism I instantly loved. I knew right away, wherever this enchanted girl and white cat were going, I would follow.
Despite being panic-deep in edits on The Land of Yesterday, I opened a new document and wrote, Annalise wants to be queen of her destiny and defeat fate.Allegory of what it’s like to follow your dreams and fail, time after time, and still get up to do it again. From this opening scene, I began to see the whole story unfold . . .
Once upon a time, in an ancient world above the sky, there lived two powerful enchantresses, the Fate Spinner, and her twin sister, the Spinner of Dreams. The first bestowed each person’s unbendable fate. The last gave each person their heart’s most precious dreams. Yet something changed the night Annalise was born—something so dark and wicked, the town of Carriwitchet broke with her birth. And everyone, including the coldhearted Fate Spinner, saw the newly born child, Annalise Lorien Meriwether, was to blame.
I saw Annalise’s impoverished parents, Harry and Maddie Meriwether, and all the love they held in their eyes for their sweet daughter. I saw their decrepit black house, in the shape of a bent witch’s hat, and the desecrated town of Carriwitchet surrounding them. I felt the hatred of the townsfolk for Annalise—the girl who destroyed their town and bore the Fate Spinner’s curse. I saw a train composed of magic and thousands of white crows carrying hundreds of magical cats. And inside that white-feather train, glimpsed a terrified, three-legged black fox with a secret dream—of opening a candy shop with his husband and escaping his own cruel fate. But it wasn’t until a monstrous labyrinth appeared in the enchantresses’ realm that I realized where all the players in this fairytale were going and why. That Annalise and the fox, and those they met on the way, were travelling to the Fate Spinner’s labyrinth to battle creatures more insidious than the mind could fathom for a chance at their greatest dreams.
Yet as fantastic as this fairytale sounded, the scope of emotion and mind and heart it would take to create this dreamworld was really intimidating! It all looked and sounded so wonderful in my head, but that was a far cry from actually getting those impressions on paper. This world was much bigger than that of my debut, and I wasn’t sure I was talented enough to pull it off. Plus, all the same doubts, fears, and questions plaguing Annalise were swirling inside me, too.
Am I doing the right thing? Am I brave enough for this? Am I strong enough to face my fears and go after my dream? What if I fail?
Still, experienced authors always say that writers should challenge themselves. And something told me this story was worth it.
After drafting twelve chapters of the fantasy I’d originally titled, THE QUEEN OF DREAMS, it was clear that Annalise and I shared anxiety, panic, intrusive thoughts, and PTSD. Immersing myself in her pain each day only to dive back into my own was extremely difficult. At times, juggling her battles and mine at once got very dark for me. But I swear, this girl was so good and kind and brave, and so overflowing with hope despite her cruel past, her dangerous present, and the uncertainty awaiting her future, she helped me remember why I started this book. Why writing a story about a cursed girl going after her dreams was SO important to me.
I’d been a girl just like Annalise and would’ve loved a book-friend like this.
And if I needed this story, there must be other kids who needed it, too.
A little backstory. The first book I ever wrote was an adult creative non-fiction that revolved around my family’s true history and touched on my traumatic childhood. One of the first agents I queried with it said in her rejection, “Nobody wants to read about children in danger.” I’ve never forgotten those words. Not because they’d rejected my first mess of a book, but because with that one seemingly innocuous sentence, they’d made me feel like all the grit, hope, and strength I’d forged within myself was worthless. That what me and my family went through didn’t matter. That kids’ stories didn’t matter. That girls should remain silent, and their traumas hidden. In the years since that rejection, I’ve heard similar things from adults regarding mental health addressed in kid lit. Statements like, “No kids are going to want to read dark, scary, and sad books.” But guess what? Kids living in those situations crave mirror-books voicing their experiences. They are desperate to know they are seen. That they matter.
That they are not alone.
As a child, I sure could’ve used books with middle grade protagonists who got panic attacks battling dragons. Middle Graders with PTSD making friends. Kids with depression being brave. Middle Graders with autism saving the day. Children finding strength and joy, darkness alongside hope—stories where kids like me got to be the heroes. Maybe if I’d had books like this growing up, it would’ve given me the daring to think if this anxious girl can face her fears and go after her dreams, maybe I can, too.
Climbing inside of a book that understands the reader’s unique struggles can make all the difference in that reader’s health, outlook, and world.
With Annalise’s story, I hoped to show readers that no matter what life throws at you, how different or fearful you felt, or how much you had to overcome, a secret magic is born from dreaming big dreams and not giving up. That a special power grows from the struggle. That one’s differences are often their greatest strengths.
That dreams really can come true.
Thank you so much for reading a little about me and Annalise and how The Spinner of Dreams was born. I can’t wait to share Annalise’s story with you!
K. A. Reynolds is a poet and author from Winnipeg Canada currently residing in Maine. Her superpowers include: battling monsters, reading amid pandemonium, and saving spiders from certain peril. When not typing, daydreaming, or caring for the elderly, she enjoys swapping bad jokes with her numerous offspring, herding various furry beasts, and reading strange and colorful tales expertly crafted by other imagination astronauts in love with words. Visit her at www.kareynoldsbooks.com.
hashtags take on a life of their own, becoming viral and leaping from screen to
screen. Such is # OwnVoices, which started out as a small movement to encourage
adequate representation of minority authors in kidlit, but now is a buzzword
that’s been beaten to death.
remember using the # OwnVoices hashtag when querying agents on Twitter. It
assured that my voice was heard over the millions of white voices. It assured
my tweet got seen among the thousands of others, as someone with an authentic
and important story to tell. I was proud of being associated with # OwnVoices,
because it felt the right step in the direction of representation.
If you’re wondering what this hashtag really stands for, here’s the simple explanation: #OwnVoices means the person telling a story is from the same group as one or more of its main characters. Most of us may not really grasp the importance of this at first reading. Consider this: Instead of hearing a story about a group of people from an outsider, wouldn’t it be better – more authentic – to hear that story from someone within that group? Rather than bystanders, someone with lived experience? I would think the latter would always be a better option.
not that simple, though. Who gets to decide what a lived experience is? If my
father had schizophrenia, do I have the authority to write about it? If my aunt
gets cancer, am I now a cancer expert? If I lived in a Muslim country for
twenty years, is my experience less valid than someone else who did too, but
wasn’t Muslim? An expat white American teacher, perhaps? If I’m Muslim but
Pakistani, should I be writing about Muslims who are Arab or African?
these questions are making your head whirl in different directions, you may
have an inkling of the struggle that takes place when a minority story gets
written by a non-POC author. Whereas once upon a time we were worried about
adequate representation of minority stories, now we have an added concern of
who’s writing those stories.
parents, educators and the general public, we’re so grateful that children’s
stories with POC main characters are on the rise. The CCBC (https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp) first began
compiling data about POC children’s books in 1985 when they discovered that
only 18 were eligible for the Coretta Scott King award. The word they use on
their website to describe their reaction is “appalled” which is an apt word
the years, the situation has gotten somewhat less appalling. We now have more
books about African Americans, Native Americans, and Asians, but nowhere near
what could be described as “adequate representation”. Nowhere near what our
kids need, or what society needs in terms of creating empathy and racial
harmony. But at least it’s grown, and we hope it will continue to grow as the
is, however, another portion of the research that is still, to me, appalling.
When CCBC gathers data about books, they not only capture who the book is
about, but also who is writing the book. In short, #OwnVoices. The latest
statistics revealed in March 2018 were no less disappointing. Of the books with
African American main characters, only 29.41% were #OwnVoices, which means written by Actual, Real-Life African
Americans. Similarly, of the books with Latinx main characters, only 33.8% were
#OwnVoices. And so on and so forth. The full analysis of this aspect of the
research is here (http://ccblogc.blogspot.com/2018/02/ccbc-2017-multicultural-statistics.html).
you’re reading this, thinking “so what?” consider this: white people are still
telling the stories of POC. On one hand, this is good because in the past POC
stories weren’t being told at all. So we have the first impulse to sit down and
shut up, because as POC we’ve gotten some of what we’ve been asking – begging –
for. Our stories must be told. We are part of the fabric of this nation and we
want to be represented in kidlit. Why then, are we complaining about #OwnVoices?
why: I firmly believe that stories told from our perspective are the only ones
that should be called “our stories”. This is our right as storytellers, as
people from a particular group, whether it is racial or sexual or other. We are
the ones with those lived experiences that need to be shared and celebrated and
explored. Not someone whose intent is to conquer and appropriate those stories
just as our lands and bodies were conquered and appropriated centuries ago.
resistance to # OwnVoices by predominantly white authors has been swift and
horrific. “So nobody should write alien stories because we’re not alien?” is
the common refrain. “Or animals?” Yes, writing about aliens or animals or
leprechauns is okay. Writing about People of Color whose communities you’re not
part of is not okay, because we have cultural context and histories and
generational pain that has shaped us. Aliens, animals and leprechauns don’t. To
be equated thus is an insult, but not as insulting as taking over our stories
and writing them.
be clear. Many of the authors I’m talking about are my friends. My colleagues.
My mentors. I write this not from a place of anger, but from a place of gentle
reprimand, a reminder that we can do better. In fact, I’ve found that many
white readers and writers are trying
to do better. If you’re one of those who’d rather be on the right side of the #
OwnVoices struggle, here’s what you can do:
about obstacles POC face in careers like publishing. This may mean getting out
of your comfort zone and understanding things like systemic racism or micro-aggressions
or cultural biases.
out aspiring POC creatives and help support them. This could be through
mentoring them, critiquing their manuscripts or just being there as a sounding
board as they try to get published. This could be a POC student in your
classroom, or a friend.
POC creatives in their work. Shout about their work, buy their work, and review
their work. If you have the choice between a book written by a POC versus one
written by a white author, you should know who to support. It’s not rocket
POC creatives a seat at the table. Sometimes this can be in the form of
referrals for illustrators, or passing on a work-for-hire opportunity.
Sometimes this means co-writing a book with someone else. There are so many
ways, and all of them are risks. Take them.
that you may not be the best person to create something. If you have a great
idea about a book with a main character who’s not white, don’t automatically think
you’re the perfect person to write it. There is a perfect POC to write it, so
find someone to refer or suggest.
OwnVoices was created to give people of color the same opportunities that
others have. It’s a reminder that not only is the story important, but also who
tells that story. It means understanding when to sit down and let someone else
talk. It’s about acceptance and empathy and well-being, all things we want to
teach our children.
So let’s start with ourselves.
Saadia Faruqi is a Pakistani American author, essayist and interfaith activist. She writes the children’s early reader series “Yasmin” published by Capstone and other books for children, including middle grade novels A Place At The Table (HMH/Clarion 2020) co-written with Laura Shovan, and A Thousand Questions (Harper Collins 2020). She has also written “Brick Walls: Tales of Hope & Courage from Pakistan” a short story collection for adults and teens. Saadia is editor-in-chief of Blue Minaret, a magazine for Muslim art, poetry and prose, and was featured in Oprah Magazine in 2017 as a woman making a difference in her community. She resides in Houston, TX with her husband and children.
Today we continue the STEM Tuesday Spin Off guest blogger addition to the MG Book Village blog. It’s time once again for a member of the STEM Tuesday group at From the Mixed-Up Files…of Middle Grade Authors to share a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) post tying middle grade STEM books, resources, and the STEM Tuesday weekly posts to the familiar, everyday things in the life of middle graders.
We look at the things in life we often take for granted. We peek behind the
curtain and search underneath the hood for the STEM principles involved and
suggest books and/or links to help build an understanding of the world around
us. The common, everyday thing is the hub of the post and the “spin-offs” are
the spokes making up our wheel of discovery.
In this month of August, STEM author and educational consultant Carolyn DeCristofano brings us the “Oh, Those Summer Nights” edition of the STEM Tuesday Spin Off. She takes us from a summer evening to books highlighting several themes: creatures of the night; looking up with wonder; not so dark nights; summer and the world at large; classic summer games; and summer cookouts.
When I was a child, nothing seemed to thrum with magic more than a summer evening. While I’m sure most nights probably were simple, ordinary events of which I took no special note, those that stick in my memory were sublime. These are the ones that define my image of a summer night. If we are lucky, a summer evening might grace us with subtle sensory detail, a connection to nature, and a link to the human community around us and the ones that precede us. And so much of this relates to the stuff of STEM!
Creatures of the Night
Mark Wilson’s Owling : Enter the World of the Mysterious Birds of the Night takes us on a journey to get to know owls, offering detailed facts about these beloved birds and explaining the parts of their anatomy and physiology that make them so successful. Did you know that owls’ ears are positioned asymmetrically, and that this gives them a unique ability to hone in on their prey? This also helps explain the head-turning habit of these birds of prey. (See Page 15.) A series of two-page spreads continue to examine the features of the owl that contribute to its owliness, and its ability to hunt so well. Other sections address owl lifestyles (not all are nocturnal), various species (!), and, most connected to our outdoor experience, ways of spotting evidence of owls nearby. A favorite section of mine is the set of tips—and rules of owl etiquette—for responsibly carrying on a conversation with your owl neighbors. And in case the reader is inspired to dive more deeply into exploring these amazing creatures, Wilson includes a section that highlights specific individuals and their owl-oriented careers. Helpful diagrams and stunning photos round out the adventure.
Of course, with the weather warm a lot of us head outdoors, some of us trekking
away from the city; some others just stepping outside into our own backyards.
And being outside in the evening gives us an opportunity to tune in to creatures
of the night—the nocturnal beasts that hunt, hide, sing, and soar all around
us, whether we notice or not. Look up at dusk and you may see swooping bats.
Listen carefully and you might hear owls hooting.
Tom Uhlman’s photographs serve up a visual treat in Mary Kay Carson’s The Bat Scientists, featuring these nocturnal mammals and those who study them. For example, Page 42 features a close-up photo of a hibernating tri-colored, iridescent, tiny droplets of water coating its fur. The text and pictures give the reader a sense of tramping through caves to investigate these creatures alongside the scientists whose work is to know these animals up close and personal. Much more than a naturalist travelogue, this book digs into the serious science of bats. For example, she explores the “great white plague”, or white-nose syndrome, which threatens the survival of bat populations. It would be fun to read Owling and The Bat Scientists together, comparing and contrasting these nocturnal flyers through the scientific lens.
Of course, you might not want to get up close and personal with all of the critters hanging around on a summer night. Mosquitoes, for example, are best studied from afar. Unless you happen to be zooming in on them in Alexandra Siy and Dennis Kunkel’s Mosquito Bite. Featuring Kunkel’s stunning (and now classic) scanning electron microscopy, the book provides a great example of how technology can extend our ability to study the world around us.
Looking Up with Wonder
Of course, on a summer evening, the world around us includes the night sky. If you are lucky enough to be in a dark-sky area on a clear night, you can’t help but look up and revel in the night lights. Stars take center stage and, if you are like many people contemplating the night sky, you will start to try to pick out the patterns of stars that have been recognized and named for millennia. Dot to Dot in the Sky: Stories in the Star (Joan Marie Galat) provides a primer to the (mostly Western culture) northern star patterns and their lore.
If you find yourself wanting to know more about what you see in the night sky, you might want to check out my own National Geographic Kids Ultimate Space Atlas, which features facts and figures on what you might spy in the sky—stars and constellations, the Milky Way’s glow, some planets, comets, meteors, and satellites, a galaxy or two–as well as features we cannot observe, even with a backyard telescope, such as the Oort Cloud, most dwarf planets, exoplanets, and countless distant galaxies. This book gives some attention as well to the mathematics of the scale of the universe as well as the technologies that help us explore it.
If sky gazing puts you in the mood to contemplate our universe’s beginnings, you might enjoy Big Bang! The Tongue-Tickling Tale of a Speck that Became Spectacular, which combines Michael Carroll’s fabulous illustrations with (my) verse and prose to introduce readers to the Big Bang.
Not So Dark Nights
Of course, the ability to revel in cosmic beauty or enjoy nocturnal creatures depends on the night being dark. And dark nights are, alas, falling prey to bright lights that we humans use to illuminate parking lots, buildings, streets, back yards, and more. Night pollution has become a problem in many communities, albeit one that many fail to notice. That’s why Joan Marie Galat’s Dark Matters: Nature’s Reaction to Light Pollution is such an interesting read. Parts are like a memoir of Galat’s relationship to the night sky and her journey from a child playing in the dark to a graduate with an ecology degree, making it easy for the reader to relate to the core topic of the book. Galat shares with us the biological and physical ramifications of having so much human-created light infiltrating the night. She shares how sea turtles, fireflies, bats, frogs, birds, and humans struggle with the effects of artificial lighting, and explores how some of this may be addressed. It’s a unique take on experiencing a summer (or winter) night.
Of course, we wouldn’t have light pollution without artificial lighting, which brings a lot of convenience and good to people, despite its negative impacts. Why not explore one of the key players in the technological revolution of lighting and electricity? Thomas Edison for Kids: His Life and Ideas, by Laurie Carlson, provides a substantial historical and experiential exploration of the inventor’s life and the technologies he developed.
Summer and the World at Large
Of course, as we sit outside on a summer evening, losing ourselves in our own world and the cosmos beyond, somewhere else it’s wintertime. Lest we stay lost in that personal bubble, it’s time to stretch out and think abut the world at large. Cynthia Light Brown and Patrick M. McGinty’s Mapping and Navigation: Explore the History and Science of Finding Your Way can help us open our eyes to the world around us, recalling how big it is—and also providing another example of how deeply technology has changed human experience and the world at large. Chapter 7, “Space: Navigating the Final Frontier,” makes a perfect bridge from summer stargazing to navigation and map making, and Chapter 4, “Mapping and Satellites: GPS and Landsat,” reminds us that the little blips of light that slowly slip across the night sky are up there doing something—sometimes helping us map the world on which we stand.
Classic Summer Games
And in the summer, the world on which we stand is sometimes hot. Very, very hot. It’s nice to cool off with a sweet treat—ice cream, anyone?—or maybe a frolic with water. Super-Soakers are always great fun. So is the story of the man behind their invention, as told in Chris Barton’s Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions. The super-soaker is a summery example of the lighter side of technology, but Lonnie’s tale reveals some serious thinking and hard work. The child who created his own rockets became the teen who constructed his own sound systems for summer parties and the engineer who figured out how to keep a steady power supply going on the Galileo space mission. In his quest for a better air conditioner, he came across another cool idea—a super-soaker water gun. Now in the heat of summer, we can stop and thank Lonnie for the entertainment and the relief from the heat.
Summer games and star gazing are part of summer fun, yet many a summer evening wouldn’t be complete without a cookout. Enter Jodi Wheeler-Toppen and Carol Tennant’s Edible Science: Experiments You Can Eat and Anna Leigh’s 30-Minute Edible Science Projects. You won’t just be whipping up Wheeler-Toppen and Tennant’s Orange Mayonnaise recipe for a unique twist on a coleslaw; you’ll be emulsifying liquids (as well as finding out what that means, and how it works). You can tap into osmosis to create a perfect fruit syrup to serve over homemade ice cream–with recipes, projects, and explanations of what’s going on when you make that cream chill out, courtesy of both books. Leigh also offers recipes for homemade marshmallows to compare from a materials science perspective. If you have extras, you might want to use them in Wheeler-Toppen and Tennant’s “Inflatable Marshmallow” activity. Wash it all down with one of the beverages from Leigh’s “Make Your Own Soda” project.
If it rains on the big night of the cookout? Cook in. Both books provide plenty of food and food for STEM thought to while away a summer evening. Then curl up or get active with any of the great books featured in this installment of STEM Tuesday Spinoffs. No matter where you are, no matter what books you read, no matter where your own thoughts take you, see if you and your inner child can awaken to the magic of a summer evening.
Image of girl being splashed by water in Spin Off wheel diagram is “Sploosh!” by Monkey Mash Button and is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 (image cropped). All other images in the Spin Off wheel diagram are courtesy of Pixabay.