Simple, right? They blend together after a while, but it’s not the fault of the format. Kid triumphs by being true to his or her own self. Kid is awkward in the lunchroom (seriously – if I never read another lunch room scene again it’ll be too soon). In book after book authors have hit the same notes. It’s not a new idea for a book ( Joseph Campbell would probably tell you that it’s just a variation on the old “A Stranger Comes to Town” storytelling motif) but this year it’s gotten extreme. I’ll give you an example of a particular pattern: The new kid in school. If you read too many middle grade novels in a given year, you begin to sense patterns that no one else can see. Since then, despite every children’s author knowing full well that the child moves house trope - or motif - or whatever you’d like to call it had been done thousands of times before, we get to 2017 and Betsy Bird (librarian and reviewer for School Libarary Journal) has this to say about the state of middle grade literature: Maria Nikolajeva published that paragraph in 2002 and goes easy on the child moves house trope. The Rhetoric of Character In Children’s Fiction by Maria Nikolajeva Euphoria

The character’s reaction to the change is very revealing. However, I would state that the new home is more dominant in children’s fiction and also more significant, since the change of setting is a more dramatic event in a child’s life than in an adult’s. Naturally, this element-connected to the basic motif of dislocation, inherent in all fiction-is present in quite a number of mainstream novels, such as Jane Eyre or Mansfield Park. Some specific plot elements, or motifs, that we find in children’s novels are not as prominent in the mainstream fiction.

Everyone is lonely when they move to a new place. But it’s very useful, because many children’s stories are about friendship, and all stories about friendship must start from a point of loneliness. This trope is hard to write well because it has been done so many times before. Child moves house and starts at new school.

Goodbye House by Frank Asch