Drug use in MG

maghranimal

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Hi everyone!

I'm looking for any references to middle grade novels that touch on any sort of drug use, whether it's simply mentioned or shown. Currently trying to research/find references for an upcoming story. I know it's more prevalent in YA, but thought I'd inquire anyhow.


Thanks!
 

Kjbartolotta

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The Riverman has some of the tweenage characters going to a party with some older metalheads, substances are mentioned in passing. Chaos ensues, and it's made clear the kids shouldn't be there, but the scene is generally non-judgmental.
 

Supergirlofnc

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I recently read ONE HUNDRED SPAGHETTI STRINGS. The MC parent is a recovering/relapsing alcoholic so it might apply!
 

maghranimal

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Thank you for the recs. One of the ideas for my next project is a MG novel that involves a brother with substance issues, and it's a little tricky thinking of how to tackle it.
 

Roxxsmom

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Are you thinking of a book where a kid has to deal with drug use by adults in their life, or by a peer, or is the protagonist themselves a user? How detailed or graphic are the scenes involving drug use? How central is drug use to the story? Do you show the mechanics of shooting up or smoking, or do you describe someone under the influence, or focus on the emotional effects. I'm guessing detailed or graphic treatments of drug addiction wouldn't be an easy sell for that age group, but a book where a child is dealing with someone else's--a parent's or older sibling's maybe--addiction issues might be.

As far as drug use by the pre-teen character or their peers, I'm guessing it might depend on how central the drug use is to the plot and character and on how it's shown. Judy Blume showed some 7th grade boys experimenting with alcohol and getting sick drunk in Then Again Maybe I Won't back in the 70s also, but that wasn't the focus of the novel. Jr. high age protagonists are supposed to be a harder sell today, though I imagine 10-12-year-olds probably "read up" about middle-school kids, just as we did when I was a kid.

A Hero Ain't Nothin But a Sandwich by Alice Childress featured a 13-year-old protagonist who becomes addicted to heroin. It was published in 1973, and is very dated in some ways, so it may have been before the modern marketing categories of "mid grade" and YA existed as they do now. It sort of straddled the line between modern YA and MG. I think it was also pitched at older teens (it was involved in a court case where certain books were pulled from high school shelves), but teens tend to read up, so I am guessing younger kids probably read it too. I don't remember how old I was when I ran across it myself--middle school, maybe, and I found it in a library.
 
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neandermagnon

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Zammo* in Grange Hill in the 80s, originally a TV series but there were spin-off books as well. Kind of falls between what Americans would consider YA and MG, because it's aimed at secondary school kids, and over here kids start secondary school aged 11, which is in the MG range, but would also include older readers, e.g. 15 and 16 that would be young adult.

*I think that's what his name was... there was a whole heroin addiction and rehab storyline thing going on
 

maghranimal

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There would be no graphic scenes or any actual drug use.

Basically, the idea is that the MC is 11 or 12 and his brother frequently disappears, and his parents are at the end of their rope. He knows his brothers disappearances are related to drug use. I agree it would be really hard sell if I were to delve into the mechanics of heroin or meth or something truly nauseating. The only thing I can imagine describing in bit is paraphernalia he finds, or maybe some of the dangerous locations he enters.