I think my favorite trope in middle grade books is how firmly the narrator manages to convince themselves they're going to have a "normal" anything. (vacation, walk, school year, etc)
Like it's definitely not healthy in any way, but I admire their total commitment to it. like, bud. did you see the cover of this book? the MC tries so hard to have the major plot point not happen so hard, and they never succeed.
feel free to add if you know of more books/MC's that do this, I made a list in the tags, but it's kinda short.

















