The trouble with middle grade fiction

[conuly]

is that unless they're orphans, all the characters have parents, and sometimes reading these books makes me wonder about the author's relationship with their parents.

I already forgot the title of this one, but I spent the entire book wondering if the narration would ever in any way address the fact that the protagonist's mother does not like her. It did not. It's like the author did not even realize that this is what she wrote! But that woman does not like her daughter. 12 year old character, mother doesn't like her, you'd think this would be a central conflict, with some sort of resolution! You would be very wrong.

And it's not like it barely showed up in the book. No, that woman is constantly there, disliking her daughter and everything she does.

It's just as well that I forgot the title. I wasn't likely to recommend it to anybody. This book was not about the one thing it ought to have been about.

Comments

[silveradept]

I feel like this is one of those conventions of middle grade literature that for a plot to work, the grownups have to be absent, useless, or unhelpful. And we're supposed to just accept that. It does feel like this particular author might want to examine their own relationship with their mother, though.

[hashiveinu]

I feel like this is one of those conventions of middle grade literature that for a plot to work, the grownups have to be absent, useless, or unhelpful.

TV Tropes calls this "Adults Are Useless."

[conuly]

It's more common in some genres of kidlit than others. In particular, realistic fiction that is not an issues book of some sort tends to have parents that function more or less like actual parents - sometimes shitty, sometimes great, but if they're totally absent it's either a plot point or the kids are working hard to keep the parents away.

[cimorene]

The frequency of this trope bothers me too, even though I know parents who their kids can't trust and talk to - even if they mean well - are actually quite common.

I know that there are reasons for the prominence of this theme in the body of work about this age, not least that it's the stage where kids are most likely to think their parents suck and can't be communicated at all with even if they later revise that with some added maturity. And that is because it's the stage where children are beginning to form and define their identity and self as distinct from their parents, and that's an operation that takes a lot of work and emotion.

But I still think it's overdone in a lot of children's literature, and that the preponderance of awful adults in a lot of it strains credulity.

[hashiveinu]

I think how credible it is depends on your frame of reference. When I was a kid, the number of actually beneficent and understanding adults in some books (like L'Engle) strained my credulity.

(I think the warmth of Meg's and Vicky's families was actually a wish fulfillment fantasy on L'Engle's part. Her own parents ignored her and sent her to a boarding school.)

[lilysea]

I think how credible it is depends on your frame of reference. When I was a kid, the number of actually beneficent and understanding adults in some books (like L'Engle) strained my credulity.

Yes, me as well.

Neglectful and/or verbally abusive and/or physically abusive adults in children's books never struck me as noteworthy, because that was what my own parents were like.

[siderea]

I'm spending some time these days in a forum for people whose parents didn't like them, and, depending on the rest of the book, that might actually really work for that population. It's a weird form of representation, but it's still representation. And while having it noticed and addressed might make for a nice wish-fulfillment fantasy, many of them would be quick to scowl that it would be very unrealistic. In the real world, people don't notice or address when parents don't like their children.

[sabotabby]

This.

[conuly]

Yeah, but when I say the plot doesn't address it, I don't mean that the moral is "sometimes life just fucking sucks". I mean I really, really don't think that the author realizes her protagonist's mother cannot stand her.

[altamira16]

One thing no one else has brought up is that a lot of characters are an exaggeration of real life. Maybe having a mom that doesn't like her child helps kids feel either seen (if that is what they are experiencing) or a little better about their own parents (if that is not what they are experiencing.)

[conuly]

Honestly, I really think that would require somebody, even if only the protagonist in her own mind, to realize that her mother cannot stand her. Doesn't like her, doesn't like anything she does or is - just does not like her.

[calimac]

For a corrective, I'd recommend a story called "Mom and Dad at the Home Front" by Sherwood Smith. It's a story about the standard fantasy topic of kids who go off and have adventures in a fantasy world, but told from the point of view of their out-of-the-loop parents.

[wpadmirer]

Yeah, that may have been a case of writing for therapy.

[conuly]

If so, I don't think the author realized that's what she was doing.