Presented to: Patricia Wiles
For: My Mom's a Mortician
The Association for Mormon Letters presents its Award for Middle Grade Fiction for 2004 to My Mom's a Mortician by Patricia Wiles.
Middle grade fiction-stories written for readers ages 8 to 12-straddles a sometimes awkward place in the literary canon, reaching out to readers who are too old for simple stories, yet not quite ready to begin reading as adults. Such novels must be straightforward in structure and language, yet present stories that engage young readers on their own level, all without seeming to lecture or preach. In My Mom's a Mortician, first-time novelist Patricia Wiles gives us young Kevin Kirk, a boy stuck with the humiliating prospect of moving to an unfamiliar town in Arkansas and living in the mortuary his parents are going to run. Yet Kevin's real problems are ones that any child can identify with-making new friends, dealing with a bully, learning that his parents are also individuals with pasts and troubles of their own. The more extraordinary parts of his story, about the secrets his parents have been keeping all this time, are balanced against the pleasantly homely aspects of being a twelve-year-old boy, making the story compelling without being unbelievable.
What makes this story remarkable as an example of LDS fiction is Wiles's handling of the LDS characters in her book. There are no miraculous conversions, no lengthy doctrinal conversations, just good believing Latter-day Saint characters going about their lives, unafraid to share their beliefs with Kevin and his family. This portrayal of small-town Mormon life sets an excellent example for future children's novels set outside the highly-concentrated Mormon communities of the West. The AML is proud to recognize this excellent book.