More than Just a Thing with Feathers: The Importance of Hope in Middle Grade Fiction

This article unpacks our understanding of hope – what it is and what it isn’t – and how it informs the way we write for a Middle Grade audience.

Abstract

The children’s publishing world speaks about hope like a magic spell, the X-factor of a Middle Grade book. Children’s writers speak about it in terms of responsibility and narrative structure; and many industry professionals see it as non-negotiable. This article aims to unpack our understanding of hope – what it is and what it isn’t – and how it informs the way we write for a Middle Grade audience. As storytellers, we play a part in shaping the minds of young readers. Through qualitative data from authors, editors, agents, and industry professionals, as well as through the lens of the history of children’s literature and existing psychology research, I suggest that hope is a shared cultural value that we insist upon in stories for young people. Writing for young people is, in itself, a hopeful act, and by writing with a sense of hope – no matter how dark our stories are – we give our young readers the respect they deserve.