The difference between Middle Grade and Young Adult is something I’ve been thinking about lately. The problem is that there’s no easy answer to what makes a story one or the other and no really clear definition.
Middle Grade is generally ages 8 to 12, while Young adult is 12 and up. It’s easy, but also a little too simplistic, to use the age of the protagonist. A fifteen-year-old main character should make it Young Adult. But the length of the story comes into play, too. Not surprisingly, Middle Grade stories tend to be shorter than Young Adult stories. Other factors are the complexity of the plot and the kind of problems the protagonist is dealing with.
On the one hand, part of me wants to say: “Just write the story and let the agents and publishers deal with the rest.” But that’s naive. Possibly dangerously naive. Because it’s possible to get “type cast”. If a first book gets pegged as Middle Grade, later books that rightly should be Young Adult might end up shelved there, too. And the problem with that is that it makes it that much harder for the appropriate audience to find those books.
Ultimately, it’s a decision I would prefer to be in a position to make myself rather than leave it up to someone else, especially since the next two books, DREAMER’S ROSE and SEVEN STARS, are definitely in the Young Adult category.
I could honestly see MAGE STORM being in either category. The main character is onthe Young Adult side of things. So is the length. The plot isn’t very complex, though. The problem starts out very individual (Middle Grade), but expands to include others and the character’s relationship to the outside world (Young Adult).
Leave a Reply