Goodbye Stranger

Stead believes her highest calling as an author is to tell her readers the truth. When Stead ended her law career after the birth of her second son, it was middle-grade novels that inspired her to become a writer. Marketers use the word “tween” to identify adolescents between the ages of 11 and 14, but the ads for these books target the parents who buy them for their kids. Booksellers report struggling to sell books with 13- and 14-year-old characters because these “tween” books ride the line between middle-grade and young adult, and booksellers are uncertain where to shelve them. Stead dislikes the term “tween” as she feels it is limiting, dismissive, and sexist as it makes upper middle-grade kids sound cute or like “mini” teens. However, young adult novels feature characters that are more like adults than kids and are often unsuitable for younger readers. True middle-grade novels are targeted at kids aged eight to 12, and Stead’s novels fill the gap by focusing more on the upper middle-grade range from 10 to 14. These upper middle-grade books feature at least one high-school-age character and deal frankly with tough topics like current events, divorce, bullying, addiction, and incarceration that might be too much for younger readers.

In Goodbye Stranger, Stead focuses on a group of seventh-grade students but also gives a voice to two high school teens. The novel does not shy away from addressing difficult topics like divorce, bullying, and the potential danger of a school shooter, yet all the issues are handled in an age-appropriate way. The importance of having an adult’s influence in a kid’s life is a topic Stead finds often missing in middle-grade and young adult fiction, and she tries to illustrate healthy bonds between teens and their parents, guardians, and mentors in her stories. Goodbye Stranger features strong parental relationships as well as illustrating the way good teachers can exert a positive influence on teens’ lives. To add to the realistic tone of her stories, Stead looks for inspiration in the news and world around her. For example, Stead’s meeting of a cat-ear-wearing young girl inspired the character of Bridge and her quirky headwear choice (“The Bonds of Friendship Stay Strong in ‘Stranger’.” NPR, 4 Aug. 2015).

Now the author of five middle-grade novels, Stead finds inspiration in the deep-thinking capacity of older middle-grade kids who can make real leaps as readers and handle heavier subject matter. Though parents and librarians may think her books are too realistic for young readers, Stead remains committed to removing the artifice of fiction and devotes herself to writing about the true experience of being a kid. This means her novels must tackle tough issues like fear, shame, doubt, and change, but Stead believes parents cannot keep kids sheltered from the burdens of being human. The weight of mortality hits early, especially as kids explore their identities, and writers cannot look away from these complex feelings and experiences. After examining younger middle-grade stories and finding them too facile, Stead set out to create realistic fiction that young readers can relate to and inhabit. Feeling that books are a way for kids to explore who they are, all of Stead’s novels are full of young people on a journey of self-discovery in a world that can be frightening and unkind (Morgan, Sally. “Q & A with Rebecca Stead,” Publishers Weekly. 26 Mar. 2020).