Pack of Dorks

Dear Ellie,

I’m very sorry. I know Beth Vrabel did not base her character on you. Still. You fit the description of Becky so perfectly, I couldn’t help but visualize you as the character. I just can’t believe you would actually act like that. By you, I mean Becky. It’s one thing to be unkind but to actually tell Lucy that you were going to be her friend in secret so that you could hear what the other kids were saying about her was just plain awful. And it seems to me that you actually took pleasure in calling Lucy every afternoon to tell her all the horrible things the kids were doing to make her life at school miserable. Anyway, Ellie. Like I said, I realize you had nothing to do with this story but I needed to write this to remind myself that I’m not actually mad with you. 

…

Honestly, the character of Becky played a very minor roll in Beth Vrablel’s Pack of Dorks. Aside from the opening scene and a few phone calls, she was a minor secondary character. It’s the completely viable situations Vrabel created, that made this kid so memorably deplorable. 

A less than perfect recess and poorly timed seat change turns a kid who never thought about popularity into a kid who races to take calls from the girl who subtly torments her. Lucy never gave popularity a second thought until the only people that would be nice to her was the girl who picks her nose and the boy who never talks. What begins as a search for getting back her social status ends in Lucy discovering the person she wants to become.

In fantasy or historical fiction, a book can still be readable if some of the story elements don’t function perfectly. Not so with middle grade realistic fiction. If your characters don’t stand out, if the pacing doesn’t move quick enough, if the situations aren’t one-hundred percent believable and if they don’t have an authentic edge, and consequently- if the message is too preachy- the story isn’t just “okay,” it falls flat. While I realize that comment doesn’t encompass the proper nuance, I typically last about 5 pages in a school-based story. Pack of Dorks is a welcome addition to the toughest category to write: books with a strong set of values without condescending to its audience.