Agency: The Dilemma for the Middle Grade Sleuth

Summary

Pointers on creating a successful middle grade sleuth.

By C. M. Surrisi on January 17, 2025

Picture of children looking at a map

The Dilemma

Many authors who love middle grade mysteries would like to write one. Hurrah! We always welcome new mysteries. However, it is not uncommon in this endeavor to dive in with a clever idea and then at about page fifty, give up. Why? Because it’s darn hard for a kid to solve a mystery.

Why is that? To solve a crime, a sleuth needs the ability to take action that affects the investigation and outcome, or in a word: agency. The youth-sleuth has some inherent handicaps in this regard. So when writing the middle grade mystery, how do you deal with these obstacles, and what can you do to make the most of them?

Fortunately, there is an established model which appeared in the earliest middle grade mysteries (e.g., Emil and the Detectives, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden) and endures in today’s kid-crime novels.

The model has three parts.

  • First, you should understand the kid-sleuth’s unique problems. For example:

    • They usually can’t drive.
    • They have curfews.
    • They have parents watching over them.
    • They have little or no money.
    • They do/don’t carry phones.
    • They lack life experience.
    • They can disagree and bicker among themselves (true of adults, also!).
    • They are told to stay out of the way.
    • They are discredited when they offer advice and evidence.
    • They are prone to misunderstand things they have no experience with and thus can misinterpret clues.

In other words, they’re kids.

  • Second, you need to create a story world where they can investigate successfully. For example:

    • A location they can navigate, e.g., a boarding school, a small town, a camp, etc.
    • A season that allows them access to the outdoors. This will vastly expand your opportunity for unique scenes.
    • A lack of constant, immediate oversight. In other words, a single parent, working parent(s), deceased parent(s), no parent(s), inattentive oversight by teachers, camp counselors, etc.
    • A knowledge of the law (however misguided) through TV, movies, parental jobs, the police station next door, etc.
  • Finally, turn their disadvantages into superpowers. For example, here are some ways to work around a few of the issues mentioned above:

There you have some pointers on creating a successful middle grade sleuth. If you can think of items you would add to these lists, please add them to the comments below. Happy writing!

(c)cmsurrisi

C.M. Surrisi
C.M. Surrisi is a lawyer who switched-up her career with an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. She is the author of the award-winning and Agatha nominated middle grade series, THE QUINNIE BOYD MYSTERIES,” (THE MAYPOP KIDNAPPING, VAMPIRES ON THE RUN, and A SIDE OF SABOTAGE) where Mom is the sheriff, mayor, real estate agent, and postmaster, and Dad runs Gusty’s, the local cafe, leaving Quinnie and her friends with plenty of opportunity to investigate crimes in their small coastal village of Maiden Rock, Maine. When she is not writing middle grade mysteries, she is writing Junior Library Guild selection YA non-fiction (THE BONES OF BIRKA) and picture books (THE BEST MOTHER), and contemporary middle grade fiction (THE UNOFFICIAL LOLA BAY FAN CLUB), as well as adult mystery short stories. She teaches and coaches middle grade mystery writing and can imagine almost any situation having suspicious circumstances. https://cmsurrisi.com

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