Students are to post reactions (minimum 350 words) to the assigned reading linked below. Students are encouraged (but not required) to additionally respond to other student reactions.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Middle Grade: A Conversation w. Editor Molly O'Neill: "As
you know, I have a marketing background, which means that whether or
not I intend it, one of the first things my brain starts thinking about
for a book is its readership: who is a book FOR? What kind of reader is
it going to reach, and how? Maybe instead of asking “What is middle
grade?” it’s easier to think about “Who is the middle grade reader, and
what is he/she looking for in a book?” I think that a middle grade
reader is often (and note, I’m speaking BROADLY, here) reading for one
of two reasons: to understand, or to escape. Middle grade readers who
read to understand look for stories that help them piece together the
truths that seem to be opening up all around them, about the world and
their place in it, and the connections between themselves and their
family, their community, their friends, etc. Or they’re reading to
understand about a different time/ place and what it was/would be like
to be a kid then. Or they’re reading to just understand how stuff works,
period—from the everyday mundane stuff to big concepts like justice and
honesty and friendship and happiness and love. Click heading to read the rest of the interview.
An SFWA Introduction to Middle Grade & Young Adult: "For writers who are interested in writing middle grade or young adult fantasy or science fiction, the first step is puzzling out what exactly those categories mean. Science fiction and fantasy, after all, has a long tradition of featuring young protagonists — including such classics as Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey, Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings, and Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey — even if those novels weren’t originally published as middle grade or young adult books." Click heading to read the rest of the article.
"Middle Grade and YA: Where to Draw the Line?" by Judith Rosen: "Since Harry Potter first hit these shores in 1998, there’s been confusion over where best to shelve it: put it where most kids look for it, in middle grade (ages 8–12), or where the later, darker novels belong, in young adult (ages 12–up)? But J.K. Rowling’s books aren’t the only ones that fall into a gray area, especially as more kids aspire to “read up” because of popular films like Divergent and The Hunger Games. At the same time, adults have begun reading down, not just YA but also reaching for middle-grade books like Wonder and Out of My Mind, because they don’t want to miss out, either." Click heading to read the rest of the article.
6 comments:
The provided resources helped clarify the distinction between middle-grade and young-adult books. From what I've gathered, middle-grade novels are often aimed at readers aged 8-12, with a focus on situations relevant to people in that age group. This genre also incorporates more on external settings, while YA places more importance on introspection. Young adult books are generally targeted towards 12-18 year olds, and feature teenage protagonists who experience growth and must make dramatic choices and actions to develop the plot.
Positioning personal works within one of these genres can be challenging, as there is a temptation to alter the writing style in the interest of appealing to a typical age demographic. However, as has been clarified through the readings, this is not best practice. Editing should be the primary stage in which writing is tailored to a particular audience, but that does not remove the urge to include cliches or simplified writing during the initial drafting stage.
Additionally, the readings were very insightful because they included insights from existing members within the publishing industry. Specifically, SFWA's "An Introduction to Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, Part 1: Definitions" included several quotes from literary agents and editors. Hearing the opinion of relevant figures helps clarify these genre distinctions. These insights, including those provided in "Everything you ever wanted to know about middle grade... and were willing to ask," also helped remove some of the pressure from the author to adhere to the specific principles of each genre. Marketing is another essential component to consider when distinguishing between genres. Book covers have the power to convey a significant amount of information to viewers and readers. For example, there is a clear distinction between the cover design of a middle-grade book, such as Harry Potter, and a young adult book, like The Hunger Games. From the selected colors to the inclusion of illustrations, the marketing decisions a publishers make helps further push a novel to one audience or genre.
Overall, after completing these readings, I realized the importance of accepting that some stories may be better suited to another genre than the one that an author originally intended. Instead of altering a story beyond recognition to appeal to a younger audience, it may be better to accept that older readers would resonate more with the characters and plot line.
Personally, I don't think I ever bothered to distinguish YA from Middle Grade. Even after reading these articles, I don't think I'm fully able to grasp the difference between them. Unfortunately, we live in a world where people love nothing more than to organize things into neat little categories, so I'll do my best to adapt. From what I can gather, Middle Grade is basically what someone would read if they wanted to escape from whatever reality they were in and focuses on things like world building and how the characters interact with the fictional world that they live in. YA, meanwhile, tends to focus on the characters themselves and how they grow and adjust to the world that they find themselves in. That's not to say that these two things are mutually exclusive, but they seem to focus on one more than the other. Both seem to have the protagonists be around the age of their intended audience, with Middle Grade being 8 to 12 and YA being 12 to 18. Middle Grade tends to be shorter and YA tends to be, well, longer. According to the SFWA reading, YA can be broken down into further categories, one for the younger half and one for the older half. The latter of these two can be gory, have stronger language, or more graphic depictions of sex. From my own personal experience, these do not get distinguishing labels in the libraries where I've visited and will just be marked as YA alongside a neat little sticker on the spine with with a picture and caption that let you know what genre they are, assuming that they get one at all.
I think Molly O'Neill says in the interview really removes the limits the writer thinks they have when writing for middle-grade. Trends of today and basic concepts such as catering to readers who read "to understand, or to escape" are more important than narrowing oneself down to a specific age range, because middle-grade really can be about anything, even mature themes and in fact should be encouraged.
I think really the only requirement - from a publishing perspective at least - a category like YA or middle-grade must have is 1) a main character in their age range, and 2) careful editing such that the reader doesn't feel as if they're being babied through the story. Again, these are the necessary parts to categorize it as a group within the publishing sphere. To make it a GOOD story, though, one needs wonder, and good dialogue, and a balance between worldbuilding and plot progression, and pacing - literally all the things ALL books need to be considered a good book.
In the last reading, I think more signage to distinguish sections within sections (ie. genre categories within YA) is beneficial for kids to gravitate to what they know they like to read. At the same time, it could take away the spontaneity of picking a book you think you wouldn't like and then unexpectedly having it be your most life-changing book. Also, restricting certain sections of the library to only those of the "correct" age range is ridiculous. I was still sneaking into the YA section of my hometown library cuz I knew a lot of the books on the shelves were nonfiction and I didn't want to read that; I wanted to escape in a book, and I knew statistically I'd be able to find a book in the closed-off YA section. That almost feels like a form of censorship imo but that's a whole different discussion.
From reading these articles, I have gathered some interesting, yet not very helpful information regarding the distinction between Middle Grade and Young Adult literature. According to the articles, the distinction lies heavily in the subject matter and the depth of character showcased throughout the story itself. However, while this may be the case, I feel as though these distinctions aren’t large enough to warrant a division into two separate ratings. For instance, Young Adult seems to allow for more explicit content, in-depth character analysis, and slightly older characters than Middle Grade. Though when writing for both Young Adult and Middle Grade, I feel as though it should be heavily considered that even if the intended audience is meant to reach upwards of 16-18 or so, the majority of readers that age will have already moved onto full-adult books, rather than limiting themselves to YA or MG. This isn’t to say that people at this age don’t read YA or even MG books at all, but they likely wouldn’t seek to constantly limit themselves by sticking with a rating that only permits less explicit writing. By this logic, the majority of the audience reading both YA and MG books is between the ages of 8 and 15, which would make sense. However, when now looking at this age group and the differentiations possible between what is acceptable in writing for the high-end vs the low, nothing is really explicit enough to warrant the separation once again from my perspective. Unless parents are extremely strict on what they allow their children to read for very specific subjects, I don’t see the necessity for this whatsoever. However, while I question its necessity, I also understand it has somewhat of an importance for those who do, in fact, choose to have specific fixations towards certain subject matters and levels of character depth in the stories they read. There is no real problem with it, and the separation does offer these people readings that are much more tailored to their specific tastes. So, while I don’t personally see the distinction between the two as very needed, I can completely understand why somebody would. Furthermore, the articles support this by sharing what exactly the differences between the two might be that people may search for.
The information provided to help with understanding the differences between YA and MG. The circumstances are tricky for certain as times have changed with what is considered tolerable in media back then versus today. We could debate all day with the evolution (or in some cases devolution) of what we're allowed to demonstrate with storytelling and the carefulness we must have with how we portray specific themes, but with the roadmap of what can be done at the end of the day, we have ourselves a list of what we're able to work with for the target audience of interest, which any author would find important when writing a story in this day and age.
Sarah Ranaldi (Pirate)
After reading these pieces about middle grade and young adult literature, I was struck by how much of the discussion focuses on the readers themselves. The articles do not only define these categories by age. They define them by emotional needs, interests, and the specific kind of growth readers go through at different stages. It helped me understand that writing for younger audiences is not about simplifying a story. It is about understanding the mindset and experience of the reader. The interview with editor Molly O’Neill stood out to me the most. She explains that middle grade readers usually want to either understand the world or escape from it. This made a lot of sense to me. Middle grade readers are old enough to start noticing real questions about family, friendship, fairness, and identity, but they are still young enough to enjoy the freedom of imaginative adventures. O’Neill’s description made me realize why so many middle grade books mix real life problems with mystery or fantasy. Readers want emotional truth, but they also want a chance to step outside their own lives for a moment. Brooklyn Arden’s definition of young adult fiction added another layer. She points out that YA stories usually have a teenager at the center who is beginning to confront adult choices. YA books often deal with identity, independence, personal responsibility, and relationships. Middle grade books may touch some of the same themes, but YA explores them with more intensity and complexity. I liked how Arden makes it clear that a young character does not automatically make a book YA. What matters is the viewpoint and the type of experiences the story focuses on. The SFWA article supported this by showing how fantasy and science fiction for younger readers has changed over time. Stories with young heroes have existed for decades, but the way publishers categorize them affects how the stories are shaped. It was interesting to learn that a book can feel middle grade in tone even if the plot is large and adventurous, because the emotional arc is still centered in the middle grade stage of life. The final article about the line between middle grade and YA showed how blurry this boundary can be. The example of Harry Potter makes this really clear. The early books feel like middle grade stories because they focus on school, friendship, and magical discovery. The later books feel more like YA because they explore trauma, loss, rebellion, and larger themes about power. Readers often want to read up, and adults often want to read down, which makes these categories overlap even more. Overall, these readings helped me understand that the difference between middle grade and YA is less about age and more about emotional depth, perspective, and the type of questions the story is trying to explore.
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