Growing Up

Growing up is an important, underlying theme in Kevin Henkes’s novel “The Year of Billy Miller”. Growing up is very similar to coming of age, though growing up focuses on younger characters, and involves new ideas, actions, and ways of behaving as the characters get older. Like coming of age stories, stories about growing will also include growth in terms of character as well. In the novel, it is Billy Miller himself who experiences growing up.

Billy Miller is seven, and wonders if he is too old now to call his parents “Mama” and “Papa”. After Emma makes fun of Billy for calling Papa, Papa, Billy decides he should now begin calling his parents “Mom” and “Dad”. As a result, this leads his mother to remark that Billy is indeed growing up. As the school year progresses, Billy and Ned are allowed to walk...