Quick quiz.

1. Middle Grade heroes rely on others to solve their problems. True or False

2. Middle Grade heroes blame others for their problems. True or False

3. Middle Grade heroes take responsibility for their actions. True or False

Answers: 1=False 2=False 3=True

I was sitting thinking about life as one does these days, I guess, and a thought fluttered and settled onto a branch of my brain: How does a reader of Middle Grade novels go from wanting to be like those heroes—you know, the ones who take responsibility for their actions, solving their problems without blaming others for creating them in the first place—to an adult who just…doesn’t?

We’ve all read Middle Grade books.

We know what those characters are like.

They’re role models.

We used to aspire to be like them.

Middle Grade novel heroes accept their part in situations that get messy and go wrong.

They step up and fix problems.

They’re also happy to share the win.

But on the way to becoming adults, some readers pivoted and shifted from emulating Superheroes to becoming Superfinger-pointers/whiners.

Blame gets louder.

Responsibility fades.

We all know someone like this, right?

When does this happen?

Could the answer lie in the books we read—or in the ones we no longer read?

I’m not a huge reader of Young Adult novels, but the ones I’ve read have heroes very much like those in Middle Grade.

Adult fiction has multi-faceted heroes who, by-and-large over the course of their arc, take responsibility for their lives.

But in both YA and Adult, the heroes are less obvious, less dynamic.

There are more gray areas.

So, is there a solution?

Because I want one…

Maybe some people have forgotten what a real hero looks like.

The answer, then, lies in an easy way to reconnect to the hero within: Read Middle Grade novels.

Middle Grade heroes are not muddled.

There’s no waffling.

You can tell right away who the hero is in Middle Grade.

Some lost souls, then, may just need a quiet day at home, reading kids’ books.

Don’t you think that would solve a multitude of problems?

Bullies? Grouches and grumps? World “leaders”?

They should read Kate DiCamillo’s Flora & Ulysses, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Erin Bow’s Simon Sort of Says, Gleam: Semma and the Secrets of Stuffmore by Kurt Christiansen, The Vanderbeekers series by Karina Yan Glaser and also her A Duet for Home.

I’d also suggest The Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers, Winnie-the-Pooh and Paddington.

So who would you send a big box of Middle Grade novels to?

And which ones would you make sure to tuck into the box?

Have a great week,

~ Gail

(Tick tock)

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