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Ordinary Kids, Extraordinary Stories

Sep 29, 2010
Book Lists, Writing MG Books

I love contemporary realistic middle-grade fiction. As a kid, I was delighted to discover Beverly Cleary’s BEEZUS AND RAMONA. Finally, a big sister with an embarrassing little sister, just like me! Judy Blume’s ARE YOU THERE GOD, IT’S ME MARGARET? was a hot topic on the sixth grade playground where my friends and I whispered about scenes in the book and smoothly segued into conversations about ourselves. That’s what I love most about stories featuring ordinary* kids, they reflect on real life and let readers know they are not alone.

Today’s contemporary realistic fiction moves beyond just school and friendship stories, and adds a little extra spark. Is it because today’s readers are more sophisticated? Or that authors are competing with TV, Internet, and video games? Probably both. In any case, the books listed below cover common issues among ordinary kids in a unique way.

HOW TO SURVIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL by Donna Gephardt follows David as he navigates the first difficult year of middle school, loses and gains friends, and deals with bullies–all very common issues for this age. Extra spark: David aspires to be like Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and becomes a local celebrity with his own YouTube videos.

THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z by Kate Messner follows Gianna as she struggles to complete a huge school project and deals with a rival on the track team. Extra spark: Gianna lives in a funeral home and is embarrassed by her father driving to her school in his hearse. Also, she must deal with her grandmother’s diagnosis of dementia.

A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT by Linda Urban follows Zoe who dreams of playing piano at Carnegie Hall, but is instead stuck with an organ. And her best friend recently deserted her. Extra spark: her father is afraid to leave the house, her mother works all the time, and the boy bully she was afraid of becomes a friend.

THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF GIRLS by Frances O’Roark Dowell follows two best friends as they drift apart in middle school. Extra spark: the story is told in alternating points of view, letting us know neither is the mean girl. They’re both under peer pressure and trying to find their best self.

SCHOOLED by Gordon Korman follows the worst loser in school who is secretly nominated for class president and tortured throughout the school year. Bullying, conformity, peer pressure, check. Extra spark: this year’s nominee is a kid seemingly straight from the sixties, the last kid on a hippy-style commune. His first time attending school is as a complete innocent venturing into the playground jungle.

What are your favorite contemporary realistic middle-grade stories? And what gives them that extra spark?

*By ordinary kids I mean kids with functional families that go to school, as opposed to kids possessing magical abilities or orphans.

Karen B. Schwartz writes contemporary realistic middle-grade fiction, and is currently working on I AM NOT A PINK GIRL about a tomboy, Alex, and her ultra-feminine stepmother-to-be, Dee Dee, who’s determined to make a lady out of Alex. Extra spark: Dee Dee has a murky past full of secrets that Alex is determined to reveal in an attempt to stop the wedding.

Written by: Karen B. Schwartz on September 29, 2010.on July 11, 2012.
19 Comments
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19 Comments

  1. Tina  •  Sep 29, 2010 @5:20 am

    I really liked Cynthia Lord’s newest book, Touch Blue

  2. Andrea  •  Sep 29, 2010 @6:14 am

    Thanks for the reading list! I’ll definitely look for these.

  3. Karen B. Schwartz  •  Sep 29, 2010 @7:20 am

    Yes, Touch Blue was also great. The setting itself was like another character.

  4. Karen Scott  •  Sep 29, 2010 @9:01 am

    I just started Shooting Kabul, by N. H. Senzai. The first 2 chapters gave me goose bumps. It is quite a story of a family fleeing the Taliban, told from the middle school boy’s point of view. I’m hooked!

  5. Laura Marcella  •  Sep 29, 2010 @9:37 am

    Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. The spark is that Magee follows his own path and doesn’t let other people’s opinions influence his own decisions about what’s right and wrong.

  6. brian_ohio  •  Sep 29, 2010 @11:39 am

    Sadly, I haven’t read many contemporary realistic MG novels. The ones that you mentioned sound pretty good. Do Superfudge and Double Fudge by Judy Blume count? I, and my children, loved those.

  7. Rosanne Parry  •  Sep 29, 2010 @12:49 pm

    Operation Redwood is a great contemporary mystery about kids saving the redwoods. The Mother-Daughter Book Club series is contemproary MG and Operation Yes by Sara Lewis Holmes is a wonderfully empowering story about comtemporary military families.

  8. Donna Gephart  •  Sep 29, 2010 @1:23 pm

    Karen, thanks for mentioning my novel among these other wonderful titles. I loved that you wrote about how contemporary novels can allow the reader to feel less alone. That is the reason I write for this age group — in hopes that my young readers may feel more understood and less alone.

  9. Joanne Prushing Johnson  •  Sep 29, 2010 @5:24 pm

    That’s a clever way to discuss contemporary MG. Now you’ve got me thinking, “What’s the spark in my books?” So often these types of books are considered quiet and not plot driven, but you’ve highlighted how character-driven books can also have a spark. I love that.

  10. Laurie Schneider  •  Sep 29, 2010 @6:53 pm

    My daughter loves contemporary MG and so do I. You already mentioned a number of our favorites, but here are a few more from our shelves:

    Greetings from Nowhere, my favorite Barbara O’Connor book. The spark: crisscrossing lives and a wonderful setting–a neglected motel in the Smoky Mountains.

    Invisible Lines by Mary Amato. The spark: A serious boy story with plenty of humor, plus soccer, science, and graffitti shoe art.

    Teashop Girls by Laura Schaefer. The spark: I’m a sucker for stories about saving the family business and this one includes all kinds of cool tea lore.

    Heart of a Shepherd by Rosanne Parry. The spark: People and places not often seen in contemporary MG, a ranch family in Eastern Oregon.

    My daughter’s new favorite: Luv Ya Bunches by Lauren Myracle and its companion book, Violet in Bloom.

  11. Kate Messner  •  Sep 29, 2010 @7:51 pm

    Thanks so much, Karen! I was delighted to check out your blog today & see my cover along with so many of my favorite MG novels. I, too, am a forever-fan of Ramona.

  12. Karen B. Schwartz  •  Sep 29, 2010 @8:46 pm

    Thanks for stopping by Kate and Donna! And thanks to everyone for all these great suggestions to add to my to-be-read pile. Here’s another addition I just read:

    The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz by Laura Toffler-Corrie

    Brian, Judy Blume definitely counts!!!!!!

  13. Jennifer Duddy Gill  •  Sep 30, 2010 @8:10 am

    We have read and loved all the books on your list. Contemporary realistic MG is what we choose first around this house too — Lauren Myracle’s Winnie books, Beezus and Ramona, Judy Blume, and pretty much anything by Jerry Spinelli.

    Your book sounds like it’s going to be right up our alley too, Karen.

  14. shelli johannes wells  •  Sep 30, 2010 @11:06 am

    love the crooked kind of perfect! great post guys thanks!

  15. Karen B. Schwartz  •  Sep 30, 2010 @8:56 pm

    you’re sweet to say so, thanks Jennifer!

  16. Tracy Abell  •  Oct 1, 2010 @8:53 am

    I’m all about contemporary fiction, too. This is a great list. I also love the Joey Pigza books, and Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree.

    (Step-mother named Dee Dee = Perfect!)

  17. Mindy Alyse Weiss  •  Oct 2, 2010 @12:56 am

    We definitely have the same taste in books, and I love your WIP blurb! You listed many of my favorites, and I’m adding the others to my must-read list.

  18. Liz Straw  •  Oct 2, 2010 @7:40 pm

    I just finished Walls Within Walls by Maureen Sherry. A fantastic mystery set in NYC.

    Also read Diane Stanley’s Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy.

    Both of these mysteries are normal kids that find the answers to two totally different kinds of mysteries.

    I really hope Walls Within Walls wins some sort of recognition in the mystery circles!

  19. Cindy  •  Oct 2, 2010 @7:54 pm

    My favorite genre in MG and you listed many that I love. Others I’m crazy about are Wendy Mass’s Every Soul a Star and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff, another Donna Gephart–As if Being 12 and 3/4 isn’t bad enough… and the Millicent Min series by Lisa Yee.

    On the younger MG side, the Moxy Maxwell series by Peggy Gifford and Alison McGhee’s Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing. Love, love, love these. I just checked out the new one, Julia Gillian and the Quest for Joy, and can’t wait to read it.

    Would When You Reach Me be considered realistic? Maybe not because of the whole relativism/time thing…. but in case it would be, I wanted to add it. It’s brilliant.

    Karen, I have a chapter book out on sub now and the MC is named DeeDee (though she’s not girly). Great minds think alike!