Magical Old People In Children's Books

Last night I finished reading a realistic middle grade novel in which an old woman appears way too conveniently in order to help our heroine with a far-fetched situation. She's what I think of as a magical old person, a secondary character in a children's book who appears for the sole purpose of helping the main character and providing life lessons. In my experience, most magical old people die by the end of the story, as the one in last night's book did. Because, you know, that's the very best life lesson.

Well-read child readers must catch on to the fact that if you have an old person in a book directed toward them, dollars to doughnuts you're going to have a death. Old people are like dogs in kids' books.

I want to write a middle-grade novel with an old woman who's a bitch-on-wheels. Not only will she survive the story, she may blow something up. 

Humor And Mature Characters

I am sure some of you are thinking that with Earth Day over and the Earth Day Saving the Planet & Stuff promotion behind us, I will finally be off talking about STP&S. How little you know me. I planned to cover Saving the Planet for the month of April, and I will cover it for the month of April, if I have to finish on my hands and knees. I'm kind of strong on perseverance. Other things, not so much.

Books About YA

Over the years, I've seen books about children's books. It's not something I've made a study off, but have been aware of. I don't know if I've seen this type of thing in relation to adult books, but it may exist.

To be honest, I know about these directories/guides because I'm in a few of them. Well, no, the to-be-honest part is that I know I'm in a few of them because I ego-surf. I only do it every now and then, because who has time for that sort of thing? But the occasional ego surf can turn up some juicy stuff.

Saving the Planet & Stuff Made Two...Count 'em...Two Books

The original edition of Saving the Planet & Stuff was discussed in two of these books about books.

Thematic Guide to Young Adult Literature by Alice Trupe. (2006) Saving the Planet & Stuff was discussed in a chapter on Older People's Impact on Our Lives. STP&S is the story of Michael Racine's summer with Walter Marcello and Nora Blake, contemporaries of his grandparents, so I can see how it ended up in that section of the book.

Humor in Young Adult Literature: A Time to Laugh by Walter Hogan. (2005)  STP&S is included in a section on Employers and Landlords. Part of what Michael is doing with Walt and Nora is working for their environmental journal. Hogan says the office politics there are "fierce and often funny."

It's nice to be talked about. These books appear to be out-of-print, so it's nice to have been talked about once.

Now, seriously, how many of you are going to go right out and ego-surf to see if you can find something juicy about yourselves?