I’m intrigued by how many books there are where the main character pursues or achieves fame. What does it mean to pursue fame? And why? Well, most people, and kids included, seek affirmation. And being famous is perhaps the ultimate recognition, or so we may believe. Celebrities are usually people who’ve achieved some level of expertise and are publicly recognized for this. And there are reality stars who are famous for, well, being famous. With so many outlets and opportunities to receive recognition in all kinds of media, it makes sense that younger and younger children want to climb aboard the fame train in order to feel good about themselves.

In Judy Moody Gets Famous by Megan McDonald, Judy feels about as “famous as a pencil” and attempts several ill-planned efforts at salvaging her ego through acts she thinks will bring her fame, including trying to counterfeit George Washington’s cherry pit. But it’s ultimately an act of altruism that gives Judy the fame she’s seeking. In fact, Judy’s most satisfying moment is when she receives recognition, while still being anonymous.

Eleven year-old Jermaine Davidson, in The Upside of Ordinary by Susan Lubner feels as if fame will save her from a conventional and boring life. At first, she considers becoming a movie star but she knows her father will never move to California, and the life of a super model is out of the question for a girl who wears a palate expander, so she settles on becoming a reality TV show producer. Jermaine films vulnerable family moments and, in essence, exploits her family’s traumas and dramas. As the title implies, Jermaine discovers the benefits of ordinary and uses her camera to help heal versus further injure already injured family members. Here again, stardom is ultimately is revealed as a false prize or hope.

P.G. Kain explores the ups and downs of tween girls auditioning for commercials in his Commercial Breaks series. In Book 2, Picture Perfect, Cassie Herold seeks out her jobs in the hopes of catching the attention of her emotionally and physically distant father. He only seems to call when he sees her on TV. And Cassie wants the security of her perfect-looking TV mom when her own mom is a distracted professor whose hippie style feels unhip and un-perfect. Once again, the pursuit of fame is cast about as a false panacea for deeper problems, such as Cassie’s failing grades and her fractured family.

In Linda Urban’s A Crooked Kind of Perfect, 10-year-old Zoe Elias seeks fame as a concert pianist. But this dream comes crashing down when, instead of a piano, she receives an organ. Zoe learns to accept her situation, and doing so helps her to heal those closest to her, including her agoraphobic dad. While she might never play at Carnegie Hall, Zoe plays an important role in her own family.

Is fame ever a healing force? It seems when children pursue fame for fame’s sake, the answer is no. When a character achieves something extraordinary and then receives wide recognition, then fame is not destructive. I’m thinking of a book like Andrew Clements’ now classic, Frindle, where Nick Allen invents a new word in order to prove a point to his narrow-minded teacher, Mrs. Granger.

In Julia DeVillers’ How My Personal Journal Became an International Best Seller, a very young YA, 14-year-old Jamie Bartlett becomes a famous author. Although her celebrity is not without issue, it’s also curative because her journal exposes authentic feelings that need to be addressed. Also, Jamie did not seek fame. She sought out an artistic avenue to express her feelings. In this case, fame is not malevolent, but a healing form of wish fulfillment.

In Jerry Spinelli’s Newbery Award winning novel Maniac Magee features a homeless boy who becomes a legend for his ability to run and to heal a town fractured by racism. He also does not seek fame but is rewarded for his heroism.

What does this mean to me? Well, the obvious, I guess. Seeking to become a celebrity to get back at people, or to get rid of your problems is a dead-end pursuit. Attempting to heal the world or to express yourself can organically lead to public recognition.

I suspect we will see many more novels showcasing wannabe stars as well as children who find lasting celebrity in a world looking for heroes. At least I hope so, as it’s a wellspring of material to both share and discuss.

Hillary Homzie used to dream of having paparazzi follow her around. Now this would be her worst nightmare as she’s a children’s author and often doesn’t change out of her pajama bottoms. Besides writing middle-grade fiction, Hillary teaches in the graduate Program in Children’s Literature and Writing at Hollins University.

I’m often asked when I do school visits–how long are your manuscripts? Since I write middle grade books, the question becomes–how long does a middle grade novel need to be? Or should be. Another words, is there an ideal length for both reader and the writer?

The short answer is no.

Long answer. Well, it depends on what kind of book you are looking to read or what kind of book you want to write. There are certainly guidelines. Nancy Lamb in The Writer’s Guide to Crafting Stories for Children defines the average length of middle grade fiction this way: “Most middle-grade novels are 15,000 to 35,000 words long or 64 to 150 pages.”

Editors will often advise aspiring authors to write a book until they feel it needs to end. Also, sometimes different publishers and different imprints have guidelines, especially with original paperback fiction. For example, the manuscripts that are accepted in the Simon & Schuster MIX imprint for tween girls (where I have been publishing) run usually two hundred typed pages, while a similar imprint at another house may run shorter or longer.

With graphic novels, word counts go down, while page counts remain the same as conventional fiction. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books come in at around the 200-page mark, but the word counts are at the lower end of the spectrum. Graphic and illustrated epistolary novels have their own norms and standards. It is a hugely growing field and includes not only boy books like the Diary of Wimpy Kid series but also the Dear Dumb Diary, Baby Mouse, the Dork Diary series for girls and speculative fiction like the Bone books.

Although word counts for illustrated books are naturally at the lower end, I would argue that in in recent years, conventional middle grade fiction has actually expanded in length. This is, no doubt, because of the popularity of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books, which started as a middle grade series (although aged up). Both of the first books in that series are over 300 pages. And the first book in the Magyk series by Angie Sage comes in at 564 pages. Deborah Wiles’ Each Little Bird that Sings, a National Book Award Finalist, comes in at 247 printed pages, and it’s not considered particularly extra long. This is not to say that shorter books are unacceptable or not wanted. I’m sure there are many incredible novellas and short form fiction out there, but are they not yet receiving high visibility in big publishing. However, with the growing popularity of ebooks, I predict we will begin to see a new offering of short stories and novellas from major New York publishers.

Hillary Homzie‘s second tween novel for girls,The Hot List, was published last year. She has three boys so she must become a spy to write about tween girls and remember her own experiences, which is easy since Hillary claims that she’s still thirteen.

What exactly is the tween novel for girls? Well, it’s mostly just a marketing term. The term tween communicates to some marketing departments in publishing houses that a book will likely have commercial appeal, explore the middle school experience or upper elementary school concerns of children ages ten through thirteen, and focus on peer relationships. A tween novel is really just a sub-category of middle grade fiction.

Middle grade fiction is a confusing name. I think the intention is that it is fiction geared toward children in the middle grades of their schooling, which would be grades three through eighth, approximately. But I think it gets confused with middle school. Is it about children who are in middle school? Maybe sometimes (when it’s “tween” fiction), but not always. And do middle schoolers read middle grade fiction? Sometimes, but often middle school students have moved into reading young adult fiction.

Another hallmark of tween fiction for girls is that it revolves around core emotional needs of a girl versus a high stakes plot. This doesn’t mean it’s devoid of action. It’s just that the action often involves everyday battles (i.e. how to get invited to that slumber party). One could argue that these books are really the 21^st century version of the 19^th century domestic novel, mirroring the everyday experiences of girls ages 11 through 13. This is not to say that they are also devoid of tension. They are not. But the tension is mostly emotional and centered around the security of key friendships. Some of these books in this category don’t use the hero’s journey as their structure. Instead, the books can be more episodic, such as Lauren Myracle’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen, which are chronicle books or year-in-the-life books. This would also be true of epistolary novels, such as Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison, which straddles the YA/tween categories, or graphic/diary series like Dork Diaries by Rachel Renee Russell.

It could be argued that Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Tom Angleberger’s Origami Yoda are domestic fiction for boys. Based on those sales, I think there will be a lot more books like this to come. And in my book, that’s a good thing. The late great poet and novelist Lucinda Clifton said that children need books that provide both windows and mirrors. There is no doubt that domestic fiction provides those mirrors.

Hillary Homzie‘s second tween novel for girls,The Hot List, was published last year. She has three boys so she must become a spy to write about tween girls and remember her own experiences, which is easy since Hillary claims that she’s still thirteen.