How a middle grade reader thinks....

[Kimmy]

My sister in law is from Thailand, and she is adopting a 12 year old from there. We saw them at a family function today and I asked the girl if she likes it better here or in Thailand. She said some things here, others there. Makes sense. So I said well what's better here? She said "I don't have to wear a school uniform!" - meanwhile I'm thinking much more grown up things about what is better here, like the opportunities for jobs, the freedom, the diversity, etc. Then I said, anything else? And she said "YES! Hello Kitty is really easy to get here but it's very hard to find in Thailand!" - I thought wow, I remember when that stuff was important!

[DrCarter2001]

I love it. That's one thing I really enjoy about my day job: hearing what goes on in the mind of children.

Once, when I asked a 4 year-old if he ever had trouble breathing, he said, "Yes." I asked, "When do you have trouble breathing?" He replied, "When I'm underwater..."

[Kimmy]

I got a cute one for ya: when my neice was about 4, she was going to sleep over my house. We had a huge dog kennel in the house for our Golden Retriever and she had seen the dog sleep in it. When I asked if she was excited about sleeping over, she huffed and looked out the window, and with a sassy tone in her voice, she said "Yeah. But I'm NOT sleeping in that cage!"

[LateToTheParty]

Examples like this make me cringe when I read a critique that says "but that's not how a ____ year old thinks/speaks/dances." A gag in Mad Magazine asked what if the Peanuts kids spoke like real children. The panel depicted Linus telling Charlie Brown about a hole in his knee while Charlie Brown babbles about a bug he fed to his dog and the dog threw up.

I'm not interested in how a ____ year old/native of ____ (neighborhood/state/nation/church) realistically thinks/speaks/acts. Average, normal, typical is NOT interesting to me. I don't care to follow a moron or twit for 60-70K words to see them excel by dumb luck, (yeah, Forrest Gump sukks)  or fail "tragically" because they're stupid/flawed/doomed, (for all the accolades, McCarthy's Border Trilogy made me want to slap that man in the mouth with my foot). 

Protags AND antags should be intelligent or at least capable people in extraordinary circumstances. There should be fundamental growth, ask Oprah.  The most successful book of ALL time (The Old Testament) gets this. An example? Sure; Mose isn't some yokel dodging sheep shit. He's a fallen member of the royal house. When the burning bush provides his 2ND inciting moment, he (contrary to popular belief) says, "Oh, hell no." Then (slacked up by Aaron) he prophets-up and emerges from the Exodus a fundamentally (all puns intended) changed leader.

Good post, K. Have a karma kookie. 

[bodwen]

I used to love the Ramona books as a child because that's exactly how a child thinks.  I think back on them now and chuckle.

My favorite part of the Moses story is when he goes to get the commandment and tells his people not to make idols while he's gone.  While he's gone, his people decide to surprise him by making a gold calf in honor of the commandments.  When he comes back and sees that they did the one thing he told them not to do, he drops the tablets and they shatter so he's got to go back and get more. 

For the longest time my mother thought I made that up and it wasn't actually in the bible.

[ChokeCherry]

I'm totally baffled by my own daughter (middle grader). The most important things in life (seriously!) are clothes, those teeny-promis (Selina Gomez and friends), and whatever girl problem happened in school 'so and so said so and so and now so and so won't talk to so and so because so and so is soooo upset that so and so...' And if you think this reads bad, you should hear it in real life context!

If anyone would use her real life thoughts and speech in a book, they'd either get lost by the second chapter---- or run down the street pulling thier hair out.  (Yep, I've considered this at times  )

Hmmm... maybe it'd work in a cartoon, though.

[DrCarter2001]

I particularly like Kimmy's story about the Thai girl because as I'm researching for the Siren & the Whale, about a Haitian orphanage, and trying to think about what kids there dream and fantasize about, I realized they think about the same things kids anywhere else do: boys like watching and playing soccer, girls like dressing up pretty and talking about boys (at a certain age, of course), and just finding any way to have fun. If anyone in power really thought it through, that's what would really end war: the realization that kids are kids. Kids aren't born thinking about violence and using others. They'd be happier with ice cream (okay, I stole that from the movie Bulworth).

[LydiaT]

When my little sister was about five, she asked my mother how long it took God to make the universe. My mom responded that it took him six days, and my sister nodded appreciatively and said, "Hey, that's not bad."

Kids are just hilarious.