In today’s Quite the Query, I’m sharing a successful query from MG writer @cliffburkeauthor. Many thanks to Cliff for letting me share! I saw on your MSWL that you’re looking for a funny, heartfelt middle grade novel and I’d like to offer my completed 45,000-word upper MG novel, AN OCCASIONALLY HAPPY FAMILY, for your consideration. Thirteen-year-old Theo Ripley isn’t looking forward to his family’s summer vacation. Ever since his mom died two years ago, family trips have become a painful reminder of her absence. Not that he can tell his dad, who has kept all his feelings to himself since the funeral. Too bad his dad can’t keep his love of camping bottled up, too. Instead, he forces Theo and his bookish fifteen-year-old sister Laura to spend a week at Big Bend National Park, the least popular and most boring park in the country. As if the wild bears, fanatical bird-watchers, and zealous vloggers of the Texas wilderness aren’t bad enough, Theo’s dad hits him with a whopper of a surprise once they arrive: turns out the whole trip was just a trick to introduce his secret new girlfriend. With Dad and Laura pretending like moving on is no big deal, Theo tries to squash down the prickly pain in his chest. But when it becomes clear that this isn’t just any girlfriend, but a pretty serious, auditioning-to-be-his-stepmom girlfriend, Theo must find a way to face his grief and talk to his dad before his family is forever changed. At once a comic odyssey and sensitive portrayal of grieving, AN OCCASIONALLY HAPPY FAMILY will appeal to fans of John Green, Ryan Gebhart’s There Will Be Bears, and Ali Benjamin’s The Thing About Jellyfish. This book will be in stores in May 18, 2021! #middlegradequery #querytip #mglit #writingcraft #middlegradebooks #quitethequery https://www.instagram.com/p/CLe75Fzgfn5/?igshid=11u6c0zgaze5a