When the third draft of The Messengers was done, it was the first time that I actually sent it off to people outside my circle of friends. And it was also the first time that I heard the phrase “Don’t talk down to children.” Immediately, I began to notice the statement on blogs and other websites. I took this to mean “Give children respect in your writing to allow them to make decisions and to tackle not only difficult grammar, but also subject matter.” But yet in the midst of all of these comments, I received a few people who asked me to remove the “Romance” in the book.
What?
Okay first of all let’s define the romance in the book. It
amounts to four individual crushes. No kissing. No holding hands. Just kids
saying or acting as if they find the other one attractive or cool or funny or
heroic.
Now, I’m not going to go into heavy detail because one day I
hope to have middle grade readers. And they may come to the website. But let’s
think about an eleven year old – fifth and sixth grade. Sorry, but I adored a
girl to the point of following her around in kindergarten. I actually remember
her coming to my birthday party, and she forgot her sweater. It was white and
pink. When I found it as we were cleaning up, I felt like Prince Charming. I
presented it to her on Monday when we went back to school. To this day I
remember that vividly. That’s how hard I was crushing at six-years-old. Yet,
eleven-year-olds can’t at least like
each other?
