For a number of reasons, no two childhoods are the same. But one big part of this has to do with where a kid grows up. Every environment has different appeals and challenges. But when it’s all that you’ve ever known, it just feels normal. To others, it feels like an adventure.
Growing up in the safe suburbs, I never knew what it was like to be a city or country kid. And though I made plenty of visits into both the city and the country, I can’t pretend to know exactly what it was like. But I could read about them in books about kids my age and how they navigated through their comfort zones.
One place that I love to read about in middle grad fiction was New York City. The excitement and street smarts that come from living in this big and potentially dangerous place always causes me to gravitate to stories about this city. And now, having visited it twice, I have a better understanding of its layout, culture, and citizens than ever. Below are my favorite New York kids in middle grade fiction.
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Peter and Fudge Hatcher from Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
The Hatcher boys in what is probably author Judy Blume’s most famous series live in the Upper West Side near Central Park. Peter, a grumpy fourth grader, can’t stand his two-year-old brother, Fudge. And sharing a cramped apartment with this menace does nothing to ease his irritation.
New Yorker life is the only life Peter knows. He’s still a regular kid who likes to torment his classmate and neighbor, Sheila Tubman, take care of his pets, and play with his best friend, Jimmy Fargo.
Mr. Hatcher is a successful ad executive which keeps them living large in the big city. And when he burns out at work in their sequel, Superfudge, he picks up the family and moves them to Princeton, New Jersey, despite the boys’ protests. But they soon acclimate to suburban life, and they bring with them all of the chaos and shenanigans that made them fit right in as New Yorkers.
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Harriet M. Welsch from Harriet the Spy
What better place to spy on your neighbors than in the Upper East Side? Harriet is in prime territory to begin her spy/writing career. As a New York kid growing up in the 60’s, Harriet has a ton of freedom to roam around her neighborhood, observing and recording these interesting characters and stopping for an egg cream along the way.
She’s feisty and not to be messed with. So, you don’t worry about her getting into any danger, just maybe a little bit of trouble, particularly due to her writing. And her inability to control her temper or say the right thing at the right time leads to a falling out between her, her friends, and basically her entire class at school.
The city is always present in the background as Harriet weaves her way through her spy route or wanders around aimlessly while on the outs with her friends. But it does nothing to help quell the loneliness that she feels after she’s lost all of her friends and her nanny Ole Golly. And it goes to show that even a city as exciting as New York can’t distract you from your problems.
Stacy McGill from The Baby-sitters Club
Before moving to Stoneybrook, Connecticut and joining The Baby-sitters Club, Stacey McGill was a preteen New Yorker living in the heart of the city and dealing with a recent and severe diabetes diagnosis. Stacey comes to Stoneybrook looking stylish and sophisticated thanks to her Big Apple upbringing. She loves going to Broadway shows, shopping in Manhattan, and when her friends come for a visit, she makes them lox and bagels and shows them around town.
One thing I love about The Baby-sitters Club characters is that each one is multifaceted with distinct upbringings and personalities. No girl is one single thing.
In Stacey’s case, she’s not just the diabetic girl and not just the New York girl. She’s the only child of overprotective parents who desperately drag her from doctor to doctor looking for a way to control, and even cure, her disease. She’s good at math, cementing her as the founding club treasurer, until she is whisked back away to New York. Then, her parents decide to divorce, and Stacey is forced to choose between her birthplace and the home she has grown to love.
Stacey’s decision is a tough one. She eventually chooses Stoneybrook by a slim margin, but she feels a constant pull back to New York. When she does visit, things are changed, from her relationship with her best friend Lanie, to the fast-paced lifestyle of the city full of food she can no longer eat and people she no longer knows. But she’s still a city girl at heart.
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George and Stuart Little from Stuart Little
Let’s face facts, Stuart Little is a mouse, not a kid. But he is born to Mr. and Mrs. Little. And he and his older brother, George, face the world, and New York City, from a small, and even smaller person’s perspective.
Stuart gets to experience the city at ground level. He’s small enough to ride in one of the tiny sailboats that launch in Central Park and befriend a little bird named Margalo.
This book reminds me that, although the character of Stuart is far-fetched, rooting him in a real city with real locations helps to make his story more plausible. The world was not built for him, but he makes the most of it, and even takes advantage where he can, such as in being able to ride the bus for free because he’s too small to carry a dime.
Both of the Little boys are resourceful problem solvers. This suits Stuart particularly well as he ventures out into the country and has to utilize those skills to survive and thrive. And I think being a New Yorker first contributes to this resourcefulness.
Claudia and Jamie Kincaid from From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
The city is a big place, but it’s also full of big buildings where entire stories can be set. Author E.L. Konigsburg set her book, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This is the place where siblings Claudia and Jamie Kincaid make their home for a good week as they run away and work to solve a mystery behind a Michelangelo statue that is on display at the museum.
Claudia and Jamie do venture outside of the museum at certain points of the novel. And this leads them to the hustle and bustle of famous streets such as Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue.
Claudia and Jamie act like a real brother and sister. It’s Claudia’s idea to run away from home. Jamie tags along out of curiosity. Claudia only invites him because she needs his funds. But the two grow closer throughout their adventure.
By the time their journey leads them to Mrs. Frankweiler, they’re both changed for the better. And they return home more worldly, not just because of the educational displays that they surrounded themselves with for the past week but also because they’ve proven that they could fend for themselves and thrive in this big, bustling world.
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Dave Mitchell from It’s Like This Cat
Dave Mitchell is just a 14-year-old boy who loves his new stray cat and takes him everywhere, from Coney Island to his Aunt Kate’s house. Being a little older than the other kids on this list, Dave can branch out way further from home. Every chapter leads us to a new destination as we time travel back to the 1960’s where it’s more dangerous yet kids had more freedom.
The story is a bit dated, but that makes it all the more interesting. It’s a time where you can get a bus ride and a meal for under $3.00, and one of Dave’s favorite past times is listening to records with his friends. But his conflicts are also universal, whether it’s butting heads with his dad, getting into fistfights, or going on dates with girls.
All of this, of course, revolves around Cat, who is along for the ride. Dave centers his whole life around this cat and where the two can go together. He narrates his adventures in the authentic voice of a 60’s teen which was praised by critics and earned itself a Newberry Medal.
Samantha Parkington from Changes for Samantha
For most of her American Girl series, Samantha Parkington lived large in Mount Bedford, New York. By the sixth and final book in the series, Samantha is living with her Uncle Gard and Aunt Cornelia in New York City.
She’s still wealthy and sheltered from the outside world until she finds out that her best friend, Nellie, and her sisters are now orphans and living in an orphanage, likely to be split up and forced into child labor. This realization helps Samantha to see how lucky she is to live comfortably and searches out for her friends in order to find them a more comfortable life of their own.
As Samantha weaves her way through the slums of the city, it educates us about how many people in the early 1900’s were struggling and starving in poverty with no resources to help them. The historical afterward in the back of the book helps to show how the induction of certain welfare programs to help the poor greatly benefitted the residents of the city, particularly the children. That’s not to say that it put an end to suffering, but the story helps to show how any help and compassion can make a world of difference to one, or a few, small lives.
Who are your favorite fictional New Yorkers? Leave your answers in the comments below!
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Back when I sold books, I would find books in the Fudge series at thrift stores all the time. I will make a set and it would sell right at the time I put it up for sell.
I can imagine they’re still in high demand after all of these years. Stories about rambunctious young boys never get old. Thanks for reading and commenting!