What’s this? Reviewing middle grade literature? Let me explain. One of the great benefits of being in a writing community is the opportunity to make friends with other writers and expand one’s universe by reading genres that you would not normally. Such is the case with Panda Girl by Jeri Maynard. A month ago at the end of Cincinnati Comic Expo we exchanged books so that each of us could talk intelligently to folks about everyone’s writing when they approach our group tables.
I finished yesterday. Really an engaging story about a young girl transitioning from pre-teen to teen in upstate New York at a new school far away from her former home in NYC. Her first day things go badly. She ends up not only in the Nurse’s Office, but with a nickname that sticks.
It’s amusing stuff, but it’s a world we all remember from when we went through it ourselves, and so it resonates. Maynard doesn’t talk down to the reader at all. The story is straight up, which means there are some tough subjects, which is also thought-provoking.
So how does this make a speculative fiction writer a better writer? How does this make one’s science fiction better? Or one’s Army combat fiction better? I think if nothing else, and I’m fairly confident there’s quite a bit more, then it takes one out of a literary comfort zone. It puts you in a story world you haven’t been in for a while in the case of Panda Girl. Other books? Maybe a genre you’ve never seen. This makes me look at the world through different lenses. This reinforces that the universe is not a known thing, but a barely known thing, and that I would be rash and arrogant to presume knowledge that can’t be had. It’s helps me to be humble and grateful for the opportunity to learn and experience new things, and especially grateful for the chance to share a remarkably nice book written by my friend and colleague.
https://www.amazon.com/review/R1S8B7LO2K1TWD/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv
Scott Macmann 