Here’s a story for
you. Back when the first Harry Potter book came out, a friend of mine tried to
convince me to read it. I refused. “That’s a kid’s book, isn’t it?” I sneered.
(I can literally feel the face I must have made.)
Fast forward a couple of years, and that same friend brought
me back from England a paperback of the first book as a souvenir. If it’s a
present, I have to read it. Also, it was short—who doesn’t love a quick read? Fast
forward several more years and, long story short, I’m standing in line at
midnight at my local bookstore for the last in the series.
Harry Potter tricked me.
Since then, I’ve made room on my shelves and in my reading
list for books that are meant for much younger readers. Much younger. I have read a few young adult books, but that’s not
what I mean. My sweet spot is 8 years to 12, kids. The middle-grade book.
If that book is a mystery, well, even better. In April, I’m
leading a discussion with some of the Edgar
Award-nominated (search category for “juvenile”) mysteries for young people
at the Edgar Symposium in New York. That’s a job I volunteered for; I’ve been
happily reading the nominees in preparation.
So why does a 40-something who once scoffed at reading under
her age group now find joy in finding a smart kid-lit mystery?
A few reasons...
I’m tired.
So are you. Modern life is exhausting. You know what you
don’t want? War and Peace, just this
minute. Sure, classics are great. Dense reads are fantastic. But it’s OK to
read something sweet, too. And it’s certainly fine to read something fun, even
if it’s meant for the tween set. Besides, many of these books will take you to
a different place just as handily as a book written for an adult. Have you read
Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy? Start
here and then talk to me about how reading books for young people isn’t
proper use of your time.
I’m keeping track.
I read about 50 books a year—about 30 less than I used to,
before I started writing a book a year—which is a good haul. I keep track of
what I read on Goodreads and in a notebook I keep at home. There’s no prize for
that. I just do it, because if I didn’t, I would come on here and tell you I
read 10 books last year. But since I’m keeping track, what’s wrong with a few
short reads? A few palate-cleansing page-turners you can get done in one
sitting is a good way to get your reading goal for the year met. I don’t count
picture books. I’m not a monster.
I want to be distracted.
When I’m drafting my mystery novels, I don’t tend to read
anything too closely aligned. Sheila
Lowe’s mystery series on forensic handwriting, for instance, even though my
new book, THE
DAY I DIED, features a handwriting analyst. Why not? Because I didn’t want
Lowe’s books to leak into mine. I read nonfiction, non-mysteries, and mysteries
that are so unlike my style that I can be sure I’m not borrowing. This is where
a strategically placed pile of kid lit can help me out.
I want to support
mystery books for kids. Actual kids.
I’m a mystery fan from way back because of what I read when
I was 8. To support the publishing of mysteries for young people, I buy
mysteries for all the young readers in my life. The kid gets a present, and one
I like giving. Suggestion: I WANT MY HAT
BACK by Jon Klassen is a mystery picture book, and it’s subversively funny.
Check out the
Edgar series from Jennifer Adams. He nevermore wants to go to bed! Selfishly,
we also want these kids loving mystery now, so that they’ll be reading
mysteries when they’re older.
I want to remember
the joy of reading I got when I was a kid.
Most of us got our start as writers by being voracious
readers. Do you remember? Walking into a library and knowing that you could
take home any book in the place? Do you remember finding a book that took you
somewhere you’d never been, somewhere you didn’t know existed, someplace that
maybe doesn’t really exist? There’s magic in the words shared between writer
and reader. Most of the time I’m on the job doling them out, but it’s nice to
remember what it felt like to be on the receiving end, to be told a good,
ripping story, just like when I was a kid and writing a book seemed like something
only other people were allowed to do.
The good news is that those Edgar Award nominees I’m reading
have been very good. When you go looking for a book that will turn you back
into a gleeful kid, you won’t have to look that hard.
Lori Rader-Day,
author of The Day I Died, The Black Hour, and Little Pretty Things, is the recipient of the 2016 Mary Higgins
Clark Award and the 2015 Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Lori’s short
fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen
Mystery Magazine, Time Out Chicago,
Good Housekeeping, and others. She
lives in Chicago, where she teaches mystery writing at StoryStudio Chicago and
is the president of the Mystery Writers of America Midwest Chapter.
