KEEPING PACE: A Middle-Grade Book Review by Guest Blogger, Mara Scudder

Review

Keeping Pace by Laurie Morrison, is a middle-grade novel that follows Grace the summer after graduating middle school and losing the title of Top Academic Scholar by half a point to her friend-turned-rival, Jonah Perkins.

The book follows Grace’s struggle dealing with failure and coming to understand that success is not always measured through achievement. Determined to beat Jonah at something and win the approval of her disinterested father, Grace accepts Jonah’s challenge to race a half marathon before school starts again. So they start training side by side, setting the stage for the summer’s adventures and the development of an unexpected friendship between them.

The themes and message of the book were well handled, and I found the characters to be fully fleshed out. Each relationship was created with an unusually rich history for a middle grade novel, and that history came into play throughout the story, pushing relationships forward as old references and shared memories helped develop the connections between the characters. Structuring the entire book around Grace’s training over the summer made for an interesting frame for the story, imitating the drive and goal-oriented nature of its protagonist.

Middle-Grade or Young Adult?

However, the story, plot beats, and themes seemed to point to a different genre and audience than the author intended. While the characters are all in their early teens and the book is marketed as middle-grade, nearly everything else seemed to point to a more natural young adult placement. From the themes of identity and coming-of-age to the major romantic subplot, many of the elements seemed to fit more naturally in the young adult genre, something I haven’t seen before in middle-grade fiction.

Even many of the school-related elements had YA equivalencies, and could have easily been written from the perspective of a graduating highschool student, even adding impact and higher stakes to otherwise less important events. The essay Grace and Jonah argued over could have been intended for a college application, instead of a writing contest. The award of “Top Academic Scholar” could have been replaced with the title of valedictorian. These changes would have given extra weight and importance to the events of the plot. And perhaps most importantly, the extra years and older age would have given the characters more time to deal with the difficulties that had plagued their “pasts” — written in the story to have happened only two years before its opening, hardly enough time for two fourteen-year-olds to fully work past their parents’ death and divorce.

Recommendation

 Aside from that, I found the book to be overall a great story, with well-developed characters, interesting relationships, and an important message. It brings an unusually dedicated protagonist to the middle-grade genre, and the themes of success through helping others and graciousness in failure made the book’s message especially memorable.

Our Book Reviewer

Hi! My name is Mara, and I’m a Christian artist, violinist, and blogger. I remember the day that I decided that I would learn something new about what makes a good story from every book I picked up — whether it was good, bad, or a mixture of both. I use my blog as a way of sharing some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned and highlighting which books, cartoons, and movies have taught me the most about writing an awesome story. I’m in twelfth grade and live in Philadelphia. I last reviewed Tears To Princess on Mrs. Baldwin’s blog.

Giveaway

Mara is giving away her copy of Keeping Pace. Leave a comment by August 7 and I’ll enter your in the contest. U.S. addresses only. Share this on social media or sign up to follow my blog and I’ll enter your name twice.

Find more middle-grade books on Greg Pattridge’s wonderful MMGM blog.