Sidereus: Belonging to the Stars High above the wind and sky, a young girl clung to a dark mountain. She inhaled sharply as the rock slipped from under her hand, tumbling down without an echo. Her hand stung, but it barely made any difference from the rest of her aching body. She stretched out her shaky arm and felt for a better hold. She could barely see her hands, nonetheless how far she had to go. The air growing colder was the only way she knew she was making progress.

In honor of Halloween this year, my friends and I watched the movie Coraline . Since I’ve been learning how to write middle grade, I was extremely interested in how they presented the relationship between Coraline and her parents. One of the hallmarks of good middle grade fiction is when the disconnect between the adult and child perspectives is present, but the reader is able to understand and sympathize with both. A lot of writers would have taken a plot like Coraline and

A blustery wind blew through the Gremmington that morning. The crowd gathered in the town square was bundled up and huddled close around...