What is the difference between Middle Grade and Young Adult books?
This is an important topic because though I’m more than happy for the YA audience to read Royal Institute of Magic, it was originally written with a middle grade audience in mind, and marketed towards that end.
For me, the key factor that separate YA from Middle Grade is the voyage of self discovery. By this I mean a teenager going through typical teenage issues, fighting and eventually overcoming them. This often includes things like self-doubt, romance problems and so forth. It can mean a YA book is sometimes more character driven, whereas a Middle Grade book is, on the surface, driven by the plot.
To give you an example, I would say the first three Harry Potter books are definitely Middle Grade. The forth one starts to slip into YA and the remaining ones are definitely YA. As a side note, I enjoyed the first three books the most. =)
I hope this clears a few things up for those wondering what the difference was.
Yes, that’s true. The distinction for definitely lies within the characters, when determining YA from Middle Grade.
Even though the 3rd one is a definite progression from the 2nd, the main threads of the story are plot driven, and the whole teenage issue hasn’t really come to light. So I would still call the 3rd book Middle Grade. The fourth (and beyond) are definitely YA though.
But the character dynamics are really what matter concerning a YA novel. The plot expands and becomes deeper and darker, whereas the kids are now 13, and are recognizably darker, dealer characters. Therein lies the distinction
*realer characters
I actually think the 3rd Harry Potter book is the YA-lite one. Harry Potter 4 tackles strictly teenage issues and the violence and darkness is pretty severe. The 3rd one deepens and darkens the characters, their dynamics and relationships, and they world in which they live, while upping the amount of questionable content
Thanks Becky! You make a good point. Even though the book is classified as ‘Middle Grade’, it is intended as a crossover novel, which means it will (hopefully) appeal to adults as well as children.
The majority of my readers are adults I believe, as it’s harder to get it into kid’s hands with the book only currently being available for Kindle (and not in print).
This book may be targeted for mid-range, but this adult thoroughly enjoyed the book! Looking forward to book 2.