Why So Many Great Middle Grade Protagonists Are Runaways
Keeping kids safe is great in life but terrible in literature
Contrary to popular belief, parents do not ruin everything. They do, however, ruin many, many things — and topping the list are freedom, fun and adventure. Parents — caring parents, at least — will do everything they can to keep kids safe, which is great in real life, but terrible in literature.
This is why so many middle grade stories get rid of parents.
The easiest way to do this, of course, is to make them dead. Long-dead, ideally. It is no coincidence that a preponderance of great heroes and heroines have been orphans.
Consider:
Anne of Green Gables. Heidi. The Little Princess. David Copperfield. The Baudelaire children. Harry Freaking Potter.
But death is not the only solution to the problem of parents in coming-of-age stories. You might, for example, want to keep the conflict the parents bring to the story present, while still enjoying the freedom of having no grownups in charge. What then?
Enter the Runaway.
The Runaway is one of my favorite figures in children’s literature. Runaways take the reader by the hand into terra nova, into danger and excitement and…
