Specifics In Middle Grade?

Um, if you're trying to tell a story to MG kids (9-12) years old...

A) most of them like to 'read up' - in other words, a protag that's the same age or a little older than they are. Eight might be too young.
B) I agree with the librarian. These are kids - they have no idea what 12th century England was like. You also need a sense of time and location, especially with a historical. Even if it's a made up world, don't leave things like that vague. It's what grounds the story.

You don't have to hit them in the head with it, but I would definitely convey it.

I'm with Christine . . . I really even shouldn't bother adding anyting . . .but . . .

I think 8 might be too young. I taught kids 8 - 12, and the 8 and 9 yearolds seems in a different behavioural bracket than the 10 - 12 year olds (exceptions always exist). So even if you are trying to broaden your readership by being unspecific, if you are truly writing with an 8 year old in mind, the character will still read on the younger end of the scale (and if he doesn't read young, then why not make him older?)

I agree that age doesn't always need to be specific, but when it comes to the historical stuff. . .

Narnia is set in the past, but that wasn't the case when it was written. It was a contemporary book set in England and written for english kids. There is no need to establish that. However you are setting a story in the "past", and I remember as a kid that I needed certain specifics in order for me to be able to see things.

I can see how just saying a date can be annoying. Why not write something like, "In a time long ago, where knights raced across the countryside . . . " but you know, better. As for saying it is england, I think that is important. Especially if you are writing in and for a country that isn't england. And this I cannot think of being a difficult thing to casually drop into the conversation. I mean I live in Canada, and I hear the word Canada at least once a day somewhere.

I mean: "But you are the king of England, my lord. You are behaving as if you are French or something . . ." but of course, again, better. Heck why not even a cheer of, "God Bless Britain!" Or a rousing chorus of "Rule Britania" (yes yes I know wrong time period . . .)

You don't need to "tell" the specifics (Once upon a time there was an 8 year old boy who lived in the England of the late 12th century is a bit silly, though in one sentence you have resolved all issues). They can be casually mentioned in passing. And it really wouldn't be that difficult or make your story less "realistic".

Yes, someone making a proclamation "On this day, in the year of our Lord eleven hundred and forty two" or something would do it.

And even with Narnia, once they're IN Narnia (the real world, well, the whole London bombing thing gives it away) you get brief blips of the history of that world. It's been winter for a hundred years, and the Queen... you get the idea. We get a sense of time and place.

I don't know. I tend to disagree with these answers. I really don't think those things are all that important. But maybe my gut's a little off, too.

Like I said, you don't have to beat them over the head. But unless you give some sense of time and place, readers are going to be floating around going..'what? when? where?'

I think it's distracting to be wondering. Especially with historical fiction. I mean... HISTORICAL fiction means you're tying it to a specific time in history.

Exactly. And out of all the problems you can have with writing, this one is ridiculously easy to solve. But I am with Christine, dear god don't hit them over the head with it.

"Father what land is this?"
"England."
"England you say?"
"Yes England."
"Wow, it sure rains a lot here in England."

etc.

It really depends on your narrative. I don't think you can have a hard and fast rule. I just finished reading The Giver, by Lois Lowery. You don't know where this story is taking place, what time period, or any details. You do know the protag's age. If you WANT vagueness in your story, read how Lowery did it.

And it worked in that book. I don't think it would work in some others.

I'm going to jump in here and say that I think your ideas about what the boy would know about his surroundings sound about right - but, if he lived in or near Gloucester, for instance, or on the edge of Sherwood Forest, he would know that.
And, of course, people gathered to talk at blacksmith's forges all the time - it was a warm place to get together, and the adults around the boy would be talking about King Richard, whether he was off on Crusade ('any news from the Holy Land?') or being held captive ('any news from Austria?').

Rosemary Sutcliff was brilliant at conveying time and place in her historical novels for children, by the way. There's one about a hunchbacked boy who grows up to become one of the first doctors at St Bartholemew's Hospital in London, in the 12thC, which does it perfectly (I think the title is The Witch's Brat).