The $1,000,000 question for the day is What is the difference between MG & YA literature?
This gets a little tricky, because when I took Literature for Children last year, my textbook said that "Middle Grade or Intermediate Fiction" was a branch of Young Adult fiction, which encompasses roughly the ages of 10-21. YA nowadays, I'd say, is more synonymous with "teen fiction" and when I say YA, that's what I mean. Those are the definitions that I was taught, and they're the ones I use, just for clarification's sake.
Here is were I DISAGREE with the particular post:
1) the idea that MG-Intermediate is "kids fiction." I hate that phrase like I hate soy milk. To me (as someone who reads a bunch of "MG" targeted fiction and fully plans to teach middle school) that really incenses me. Okay, so it's perfectly fine for grownups (high school grads, as I call it---if you've graduated from high school, you're a "grown up" to me) to read YA (which usually refers to "teen fiction") but Middle Grade-Intermediate stuff is "kid" fiction. Really?! So to get this straight, if you write for middle grade, you're writing for kids. First of all, middle grade fiction is indicative of the middle grades: meaning 11-14. That's right - 14 year olds. That's not very "kiddie" to me. Most 8th graders complete their school year as 14-year-olds. Most.
The ages are closer than one might originally think. But to me, it's the audacity of the statement. I don't feel like I'm reading beneath my level when I read The Chronicles of Prydain or the Redwall books or Harry Potter or Percy Jackson or The Lost Years of Merlin/Great Tree of Avalon or The Wardstone Chronicles or Inkheart. I will admit to reading certain YA books and wanting to claw my eyes out. MG books seem to chronicle true rites of passage in a way that many "teen fiction" books do not.
Really, I guess I just want to defend MG-Intermediate fiction. If it's not okay to dismiss YA books because of their target audience, it shouldn't be okay to dismiss MG.
And that's my next point. 2) I do not work for publishers, but I do believe (and other authors have said this too...or at least, they've typed it on their blogs/sites) that the labels "MG" "YA" and so forth are really more for marketing purposes. Target audiences. That does not limit an audience in any way by their age. My mid-40s pastor is totally in love with the Harry Potter books. And he's not a "kid." And he wasn't a "kid" when they came out. My 70-something grandmother loves the Twilight series. My parents love Percy Jackson (I'm serious: at dinner one night, my dad looked at us all and said, "If I was a half-blood, who do you think my godly parent would be?" And an actual discussion ensued). I think it is little more than marketing. In fact, labels such as that remind me a lot of MPAA ratings - they have no basis whatsoever on the quality of the picture: there are really stupid and worthless G-rated movies and there are amazing R-rated movies. The label doesn't say anything about quality. Now I will admit that that's a bit of a stretch, and I don't want to go down the "content" road...
3) The idea (voiced in the post that I'm ranting about) that it's okay to have "morals" in that back of your head when you write "kid fiction" but not when you write for the glorified "young adults." I just want to sidebar and say: MG-aged audiences are just as much "kids" as teen are. Don't balk just yet - why shouldn't it be true? They're all under 18, so legally they're all minors. Yeah, teenagers have things going on that are different and unique to their present experiences, but let's not create a rift here. Middle Grade fiction - as kid fiction - is all butterflies and rainbows, with moral messages and everything, but YA fiction is where serious things occur. Teenagers - because they're TEENAGERS! - do not need moral messages. That's kid stuff for kids. Maybe I'm the only one, but that's a pretty fractured message: moral messages, values, and other "teachable moments" are the stuff of kids' fiction, because kids need that, but once you graduate from Middle Grade to Young Adult (which encompasses high school, and freshmen are all of 14 years old) you no longer need moral mesages, values, or teachable moments. Because you're a TEENAGER and you automatically know everything. And if for some weird reason you don't know everything - that's okay! You'll figure it out all on your own, because you're a TEENAGER.
What am I trying to say? I'm saying that upper-Middle Grade-Intermediate readers and Teen readers are probably less than a year's difference away. I don't think rifts need to be created. I don't think a stark contrast should be seen between Middle Grade-Intermediate fiction and YA-Teen fiction. And I think that both genres/subgenres (honestly still not sure which phrase to use) need respect. Don't dismiss YA literature as immature and childish, but certainly don't dismiss Middle Grade-Intermediate. Some of the greatest authors' works reside in that section of the bookstore, and they do not write kid stuff for kids. They write literature for young people, award-winning and multi-million dollar literature that is enjoyed by adolescents, teenagers, and adults alike. Don't limit their talent by assuming to dismiss their work as "for kids." And don't assume that teenagers aren't in need of guidance as well - both the teen characters and the teen readers.
For an author to make "moral messages, values, teachable moments, etc" purely the stuff of "kid fiction" is to miss the mark entirely and assume too much of teenagers/young adults. Everybody needs values, guidance and teachable moments, and books with messages are often the ones that stand out above the superficiality of the "just for entertainment" stories. I know which type I'd rather read, and I know which type I'd rather write. Bravo, Intermediate and Middle Grade Authors. May the Young Adult authors follow from your examples, and perhaps Young Adult literature will become less superfluous and more inspiring.
