The Merit of Middle Grade

When you pick up a book, you can usually determine pretty quick who its intended audience is based on how it looks, right? How many pages the book is, how the cover is designed, the age of the main characters, or maybe just placement within a bookstore. Granted, sometimes you can’t always tell because there are always books that are a little hard to classify to one specific spot, but still. In general, you can usually tell what kind of book a story is just by looking at it.

            In one sense, this is pretty helpful, but in another sense, it might be a bit restraining. For example, there are a lot of books that kind of fall in between on the age range category. For example, books like J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter or Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson are series that follow characters that start around eleven or twelve (middle grade territory) but then by the end of the series are old enough to be considered Young Adult. This blurry line seems to be even more muddy between YA and Adult books, as a new in-between category has started to emerge called New Age.

All of this affects a book’s placement within a store. I don’t know if I’m the only person that does this, but I always feel a little bit awkward as an adult when I want to look for something and it’s shoved back in what is clearly the “Kid's Section” of the store. I know that’s a little silly being as, like I said, books with older characters and darker plotlines can be back there too. Kristin made the point once that placement like that might be just to keep series together. For example, you’ll always find Rick Riordan’s second series featuring Percy Jackson, The Heroes of Olympus, back in the Middle Grade section of a store even though the vast majority of the characters would be old enough for it to be considered YA.

I like books that are a bit blurry like that though. One thing I really appreciate about how Kristin and I wrote our manuscript, The Visionary, is that though it’s technically YA because of the character’s ages, there’s really nothing so intense or scary in it that would knock it out of the higher rungs of Middle Grade as well.

I guess my point is, a good book is always a good book, no matter what category or age-range it falls into. I don’t really like it when people are like “Oh, that’s a kid’s book” or you feel awkward reading something out in public because it might look silly reading a book that’s clearly not marketed toward you.

Though I’m technically a grown-up (*shivers in horror*), I actually still really like reading Middle Grade books, for several reasons. For one thing, I’m a writer, and if you’re a writer, you’ve definitely got to read books that fall within the category you want to write so you can learn the techniques and norms associated with it. I’ve never written a book that would be considered strictly Middle Grade as of this moment, but because I know the norms of the category, I can look at Visionary and say that there’s probably nothing too intense that it would bother a younger reader if they picked it up.

Secondly, I tend to like Middle Grade books because they tend to be a bit lighter reads. They’re typically shorter and might be written in a way that’s a bit easier to read. Though they can be intense and dark, Middle Grade usually cuts down or doesn’t include (for obvious reasons) more intense context YA, NA, or Adult wouldn’t like violence, explicit context, etc. People read to get away from things, and sometimes I really don’t want heavy, brutal things bouncing around in my noggin.

For example, if you’ve been following our Monthly Reading Wrap-Ups, you’ll know I just did a full reread of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games series. Those books are great- it’s a thrilling story with memorable characters and excellent writing technique. It is also very dark and violent and brutal. After four books of that, my brain needed a break, so I’ve since read two Middle Grade series that I enjoyed just as much.

Sometimes I really enjoy getting to take that step down to something that’s a little lighter. I’ve done the same thing with Adult to YA. Take fantasy books that fall into the Adult category, for instance, they tend to be notorious for violence or spicy content or whatever, so stepping back into YA can be a good way to get the same kind of story, but the gore and spice might be toned down a bit. Well, sometimes, but you get my point.

In truth, a lot of what I read is either Middle Grade or YA. As I said, I probably fall there mainly because that’s what I like to write, but also that tends to be where the stories I like tend to fall. Still, that category stereotyping rubs me wrong because I think it gives the impression that you can’t read in certain sections once you’re past that age. Read whatever you want- read in all categories, especially if you’re a writer, because that’s one of the best ways to learn your craft.

Think about it. Some of the most beloved and well-known books that exist are directed at younger readers: C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series (which that follows Anne into adulthood, but still), Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, just to name a few.

I know I’m on a bit of a soapbox, but I genuinely think I’ve seen some of the most impressive writing technique within Middle Grade novels. Here’s some of the factors I really enjoy with Middle Grade Books:

            Simplicity

As a notorious over-writer, keeping things straight to the point is something I’ve always had a hard time with, so maybe that’s why an author’s ability to do that in Middle Grade has always impressed me.

            Middle Grade is typically always focused on a younger audience, so a lot of the way those books are written is very straightforward and simple, even if the plot itself is not. I think it’s a thousand times harder (and a thousand times better) to write a simple sentence that perfectly conveys your meaning in a brief way, rather than a huge paragraph filled with prose. A few years ago, I reread Jeanne DuPrau’s The City of Ember, and I remember just being baffled by how she could create this strange underground, dystopian world with such great characters and emotion using such brief language. (You can see by those wordy sentences why I’m so impressed.)

            Like, I genuinely don’t get how people can write sentences that pack such a punch so simply. It’s beautiful really. Maybe it just takes practice to chuck out all those descriptive words to get down to a bare-bones sentence, but that is a writing technique that still eludes me.

            Lightness and Messaging

            I got into this a little bit earlier, but Middle Grade tends to take on a bit of a more hopeful tone, which I think sometimes I really need to read and be reminded of. For example, the last YA book I read, Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes weighed this debate about the inherent goodness or evilness of humanity throughout the entire book, which is great. But it’s really heavy as a topic.

            Now that is not to say that Middle Grade does not handle heavy topics. The last series I finished, Andrew Keenan-Bolger and Kate Wetherhead’s Jack & Louisa trilogy, blew me away multiple times by the topics and dynamics they dared to cover. The second book introduced a dynamic where there was a person in authority being unfair and purposefully singling out one of the main characters. Said adult was eventually called out, admitted their behavior was uncalled for, apologized, and then later became very good friends with the main characters. I literally could not think of another book with such a clear message of “Adults are not allowed to treat you unfairly”, plus I liked that the situation was presented in a pretty realistic and passive-aggressive way. I also liked that you understood the adult wasn’t actually a bad person, in truth, and that she became a great character later on. Beyond that though, Jack & Louisa is mainly about the highs and lows of friendship, and it covered a massive amount of ground on all the stuff in between like jealously, getting caught up in yourself, bullies, romance, and how to be there for your bestie no matter what. I also appreciate a book series that promotes a shameless love of theatre and being different. It’s fabulous.

            When we were talking over my idea for this week’s blog, Kristin raised the point that Middle Grade tends to deal a lot with life lessons like self-acceptance, friendship, growing up, etc., rather than making say a societal point or adding elements just for shock value. The messaging of Middle Grade is really focused on things you need to hear or how to deal with situations you encounter as you enter the scary world of getting older. There’s maybe a lot of good ground to cover when you’re kind of in an in-between stage of your life, and those middle to teenage years are when things always just seem really tough. It’s nice to have characters to relate to and a different world to disappear into for a while. Like I said, even when you’re older, maybe it’s nice to be reminded of things like how to be true to yourself or being a good friend every once and a while.

            Creativity

            This one’s one of my favorites. I think because Middle Grade tends to be a bit lighter, there’s maybe a bit more room to have some fun. Humor in Middle Grade books tends to run a bit more on the goofy side, which I love. Like there are scenes in some Rick Riordan books that I can’t even explain without sounding insane. In his last book, The Chalice of the Gods, Percy, Annabeth, and Grover get chased by killer chickens and then have to sing karaoke in attempt to appease a goddess, which makes zero sense out of content, but it’s hilarious and it works. Which Percy Jackson could fall in Middle Grade or YA, but I love that there’s room to just have fun with it, no matter how silly it sounds.

            Another thing I really like about Middle Grade books is that they’re more likely to have art in them. After reading The Hunger Games, I went to Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black’s The Spiderwick Chronicles, which might be one of the darker series in Middle Grade but I loved that it had all this fantastic art to help tell the story along the way. It’s kind of gothic and weird, but I loved the incorporation of these big, detailed pictures to show off the fantastical creatures within the story. YA can have some pictures, but I feel like they’re more often relegated to maps or chapter headings. The only author I can consistently think of that has pictures in her books no matter the category is Cornelia Funke, who if I’m not mistaken has a background as an illustrator. In the same vein as Spiderwick, her books use pictures to enhance the story, which I think is extremely effective in series like Inkheart and Dragon Rider where all these strange fantasy creatures and characters are literally popping out of the normal world at the characters. I like that they’re also popping out at the reader too.

            For my twenty-fourth birthday, Kristin gave me a Middle Grade book she’d had to read for a class and ended up loving the writing technique of. I read it and instantly agreed. Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon is maybe a perfect storm of all these elements I’ve gone through today. The technique of how the story was laid out so simply, the fantastical elements, the rich characters, and the ability to deal with scary issues like fear, bad people in power, and family in such a simple way. Like, holy cow! Check this book out if you haven’t. I had planned to read a different book series next after finishing Jack & Louisa, but I’m tempted to reread it now just from talking about it since it’s been a while. I might just do that.

Anyway, I know this has been a bit of a long-winded rant, but I think I’m doing my best to break that habit of reading whatever I’m pushed toward through genre, age category, or whatever. I’ll say it again, a good book is a good book, and I think as an author, it’s beneficial to read anything and everything. As a reader, I think it’s worthwhile to do the same. If you want a lighter read and think something I’ve mentioned sounds interesting, go for it. A series like The Spiderwick Chronicles came out when I was a kid and I just never got around to reading it, so I’m glad I took the time to read it now because I really enjoyed it.

Let us know your thoughts on Middle Grade or some of your favorite books to check out!

Thanks for reading. Write on.

-Kamryn