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A weekly column from children’s author Simon Rose

Despite the need for children to be the chief architects of their own adventures in novels for middle grade readers, there is certainly a place for adults in children’s stories, and not just as villains either.

In my first novel, The Alchemist’s Portrait, Tess is a young woman in her early twenties who works in the restoration department at the city museum where the infamous portrait of Nicolaas van der Leyden is being expertly restored. In the course of the story, Matthew, the chief character, does indeed receive a great deal of important information from Tess at various points in the narrative, and her help is essential to allow Matthew access to the museum after hours, for example, by the means of her security pass. However, in the end it is always Matthew, rather than Tess, who is responsible for finding all the answers and ultimately winning the day.

In my third novel, The Clone Conspiracy, another adult character, Lisa Mackenzie, is employed at LennoxGen, where secret human cloning procedures have been carried out. Lisa, is like Tess, crucial to the plot, providing a number of compelling details, offering tantalizing clues and so on. In this way, she is able to point Luke and Emma, the main characters, in the right direction to expose a shocking international scheme. However, it is once again the young protagonists who formulate strategies and eventually find solutions as a result of their own efforts.