how different...is too different?

A 100,000 word contemporary MG about cannibalistic 10-year-olds in suburbia would probably be too different.

Honestly, it's impossible to answer your question without knowing specifically what you mean by "different". If a book has unique characters and a strong plot that appeals to kids, has an appropriate MG voice, and doesn't fall too far outside standard MG length, it's probably not going to be "too different".

Welcome to AW!

A red apple is good. A yellow apple is good. A green apple is different but pretty awesome. A blue apple? No thanks.

I don't know whether your 'different' story is a blue apple or a green one, that's dependent on so many things. The right agent, the right publisher, the right place, the right time.

Good luck!!

Quirky? Quirky is great!

I remember reading Philip Ridley's Kasper In The Glitter when I was younger about a boy who lived in this strange plain called Nothing with a mother named Pumpkin and one day he has to travel into the - in his eyes - even stranger world of The City to retrieve a stolen broach. He meets all of these utterly nutty eccentric characters plucked straight out of a daytime dream.

It's the quirkiest book I've ever read, and written for kids. It also forever changed how I view Banoffee Pie.

I remember Phillip Pullman's The Firework Maker's Daughter being one of my favourite quirky books as well.

So, quirky is usually good. Don't worry about being quirky. What you do need to worry about is age appropriateness.

Two OTT examples; A girl that enters a parallel universe where everyone walks on the ceilings and has feet for hands is quirky and age appropriate. A girl that enters a parallel universe where sexual favours are used as currency is quirky but SO NOT APPROPRIATE.

As long as you keep in mind your audience and make sure it's quirky in the way your audience will understand and appreciate, I think you can probably keep with it.

As a quirky example, one of the books I read last year was about people who lived in caves who didn't naturally pull facial expressions, so they had to learn them from special facesmiths. And magical cheese. (A Face Like Glass - Frances Hardinge)

Quirky is VERY good if it's still appropriate to the target audience. I'm writing a novel, on and off, that is very quirky, but which I'm referring to as 'If Roald Dahl wrote Narnia'. It's called ESCAPE TO SWEETOPIA, and that's all I'm telling

Oh, if you want to read weird stuff, try Phillip Ridley, Neil Gaiman, Morris Gleitzman, and Terry Pratchett.

Dave

thelittleprince said:

I guess my only concern is that mine isn't a fantasy or anything- it is set in the real world, but following kids in an African country. There are very few of these types of MG novels out there. Which is good I suppose, but you also kind of wonder why not...

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Because no one has submitted a well written one. Editors are always looking for work that takes place someplace outside the states and UK.

Congratz on the expressed interest. That's a great first step.

It depends on what you mean by quirky. I remember reading a book about a girl who gets bitten by a rat which makes her able to hear him talk. When she gets bitten again it makes her shrink. The premise was weird but the book was great.

Congratulations.

Congrats on being accepted! It seems you were worrying over nothing indeed.

Care to tell us your publisher and/or name of the book? I'm curious about this quirky MG novel that follows some kids in Africa.

Congratz on the offer.