Book Review: A Song For Bijou

Life for Alex Schrader has never involved girls. He goes to an all-boys prep school and spends most of his time goofing around with his friends. But all that changes the first time he meets Bijou Doucet, a Haitian girl recently relocated to Brooklyn after the earthquake-and he is determined to win her heart. For Bijou, change is the only constant, and she's surprised every day by how different life is in America, especially when a boy asks her out. Alex quickly learns that there are rules when it comes to girls-both in Haitian culture and with his own friends. And Bijou soon learns that she doesn't have to let go of her roots to find joy in her new life.

Told in alternating viewpoints against the vibrant backdrop of Haitian-American culture, Alex and Bijou take their first tender steps toward love in this heartwarming story.

When I first found this book I cannot explain how excited I was. A middle grade book with Haitian character? YES! 

Why was I so excited? Because I’ve been to Haiti, several times, and it’s a country that left a huge mark on my life. To see a cool looking, modern book for young people that represents that culture—was amazing. I was eager to see how it was handled, the voice, the culture, the history. But I was also so intrigued by the concept of a Haitian character in the United States and how she would cope.

Over all, I had HIGH expectations for this book.

Maybe that’s why I’m only giving it 3.5 stars. The idea behind this book could not have gotten better for me but I just didn’t quite relate to it. I didn’t connect. 

Negatives:

First, a few things about this book didn’t really strike me as middle grade. The character’s voice never felt quite authentic middle grade. Some points they sounded super young, some points they sounded like adults (there were some info-dumpy spots that didn’t help.)

Also, the entire plot is romance based which is a bit strange for middle grade. Not necessarily bad, just different. My problem with it was how the main character seems almost too focused on his crush. A hopeless romantic type character, I suppose. But from page one (okay, 2) he was in love with a Haitian girl he’d never met. He pretty much has zero goals or interests outside of meeting and impressing this one girl. I think it could have been cute, but his motivations felt unrealistic to me.

Positives:

 Diversity! This book is actually a few years old so it was doing diversity before diversity was a hot trend. It has some bits of Haitian culture and shows the differences between two people from very different backgrounds but also how they can relate to each other. I think the entire point of this book was opening the eyes of one boy to the diversity in the city around him which was REALLY cool.

Bijou: The main female character was a young Haitian girl. Her, I found much more relatable than Alex, the male lead. She was less interested in dating and more about her family. Though of course she warmed up to Alex, I found her hesitancy to be endearing.

Her voice was also handled very well. When we jumped to her perspective her thought processes and language ability were very obviously different than Alex’s, in a good way. English isn’t her first language and even though she speaks it very well, the subtle differences made her feel very authentic.

Conclusion:

In all this is a cute read. Great if you’re looking for a culturally diverse story for young readers, just know that if your readers don’t want a straight romance—there isn’t a whole lot here to keep them reading. The cultural aspects are fun, but they aren’t really plot central, at least in the beginning, so it’s not enough to keep an otherwise uninterested reader interested. 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14798989-a-song-for-bijou

https://www.amazon.com/Song-Bijou-Josh-Farrar/dp/0802733948

Dear MG Minded - On MG and Romance

Middle Grade Minded received a really interesting question in our inbox last week about middle grade and romance. It's a great topic to address for middle grade writers, so I decided to share the question and my response with all of you.

Dear MG Minded,
I'm really glad I found this group because I write MG and YA novels myself. Can you guys help me with a pressing question? My character is a fifteen year old girl. I made her fifteen because the story has a strong romantic subplot where she meets her first real boyfriend and gets a first kiss. I thought twelve was too young for that experience and thirteen and fourteen are in the dreaded tween range, which I'm told is hard to market. Still, a lot of people who read my novel think the MC comes across a lot younger, in the tween years. If I move her age down to twelve, can she still have romantic experiences and would any middle graders be interested in that?
Chuck

Chuck,

I’m glad you found us too! We always love to see more MG/YA writers in this community. As for your question, there’s no 100% straight forward answer, but there’s a couple of things you should consider.

The first thing is the age of your main character. Fifteen can sometimes also fall in the no man’s land in terms of age and fitting in to MG vs YA. Kids usually read up so the characters they read about are usually, but not always, older than they are. That said fifteen typically falls in lower YA territory. If your character is presenting as young, you could consider reworking her to sound more age appropriate at fifteen.

On the flip side, the other consideration is the appropriateness of romance in MG. Middle Grade is very much about discovery and figuring out where one fits into a group. It also has a lot of firsts, especially when you hit the upper middle grade where the main characters are typically twelve and yes, also thirteen. Upper middle grade often deals with those tween/middle school years, where kids are learning to navigate their lockers, their classes, their friends, and their first crushes. In upper middle grade crushes and innocent first kisses can happen.

So if your character does in fact present as a tween and is experiencing her first crush and first kiss, but not much beyond that I would say you are squarely falling in that upper middle grade range. Making her twelve or even thirteen shouldn’t make your book unmarketable. In fact, I had an agent once recommend that I make my main character thirteen and pitch it as upper middle grade. So the market is there for that.

That said, I’d be hesitant to go as far as calling it a full blown relationship even in upper middle grade. A little innocent romance is typically fine because kids are starting to feel that interest and those crushes. Do keep in mind, if the romantic subplot goes much beyond that point of the first crush/kiss stuff, you’re probably heading into YA territory. Romance beyond those innocent first couple of steps is fairly rare in middle grade. As long as you are sticking to that sense of innocence and firsts you should be okay in the upper middle grade realm.

Hopefully that helps as this can be a tough call.

Jamie

MG Minded

What do you guys think about MG and romance? How much is too much? Where is the line between romance in MG and romance in YA?

Thanks to Chuck for the question and allowing me to post it on the blog!

If you have a question you'd like MG Minded to answer please email MGMinded@gmail.com.

Let's Talk About Sex

No, really, let's not. Not ever.

Years ago, I read a Middle Grade novel that sort of freaked me out. The general story, main character, writing was all solidly MG. But one thing was not, the way the Main Character described the girl he liked.

It was all, well, a little bit...





CREEPY.

One of the general unwritten rules of MG is that it's much less focused on romantic relationships than YA. But of course, its not like boys and girls only start liking each other in high school. Although kids are unique, most, if not all, kids like other kids way, way earlier than high school. Often, they just don't tell anybody. They keep it to themselves.

And probably, kids sometimes think things romantically about others that if put down on the page, would seem pretty damn William Dafoe.

So the question is, when it comes to things like Romance, bad language, anything like that...what responsibility does the author have to "tell it like it is" and what responsibility does the author have to act like a filter of un-creepiness?

Since I know that most MG writers drink while they write you may...what....you don't?



Well, if you do drink while you write MG or if you ever feel like you've crossed the line into Dafoe territory, give your MS to somebody with the instructions, "let me know if anything in here is a little too Ewww". Your job? Purge Dafoe from your work. Instead, up the tension. Purge Dafoe, create more laughs. Purge Dafoe, create more compelling characters. Your MS will be better the less creep you have.

Happy Writing and have a great weekend!