Young MC in high school setting -- too young for YA/ too old for MG?

sch91086

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There's tons of MG that deals with bullying, diversity, etc.

Ah- I didn't realize that. I always took middle grade to be more like BoxCar Children, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys stuff. I guess my age is showing. I'll go ahead and second the comment beneath mine than and say it depends on the voice.
 

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Ah- I didn't realize that. I always took middle grade to be more like BoxCar Children, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys stuff. I guess my age is showing. I'll go ahead and second the comment beneath mine than and say it depends on the voice.

MG ranges from 8- to 12-year-old readers. There's a wide variety of reading levels within that. Lower MG is different from upper MG.

Also, those are some pretty old series that might not reflect what the current market looks like, even if those books are still being put out. It's a bit like comparing today's YA market to Sweet Valley High.

But one suggestion I'd make for the OP, if she hasn't already, is to read a bunch of upper MG and younger YA to see where she thinks her book will fit.
 

Toothpaste

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There's tons of MG that deals with bullying, diversity, etc.

Yeah seriously. I mean . . . most of Judy Blume is MG and those two themes right there: Bullying = BLUBBER, Diversity = IGGY'S HOUSE. And that's not all. There's also questions about religion (and of course puberty - this book is the greatest period piece ;) ): ARE YOU THERE GOD IT'S ME MARGARET. Hubris, phobias, and not being true to yourself: OTHERWISE KNOWN AS SHEILA THE GREAT.

And Judy Blume isn't exactly contemporary to MG right now. THE NEST by Kenneth Oppel is a horror novel about a boy dealing with his baby brother's disease and constantly having to go into the hospital. There's DOWNSIDE UP by Richard Scrimger about a boy learning to cope with loss. Heck my own books have plenty of that in them as well, as well as questions of what makes up a family, and how sometimes actually doing the inappropriate thing is the right decision.

That's not even getting into the twisted world of A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS or the darkness in the first three Harry Potters.

MG is awesome. There is so much to be mined there. So many themes to be discussed, issues to dig into. I would highly recommend folks actually read some of the newer stuff out there :) .
 
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cornflake

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In addition, and I'm not trying to pile on or anything, just pointing out how much stuff has changed, I think Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys would've been YA(I'm not sure if the same categories were the same but I mean thought to be for what we consider a YA audience), no? I remember reading some when I was quite young; my grandparents had a shelf full, and weren't all of them like, 16 or 18 or something? I think the boys were older than Nancy Drew but I'm fairly sure they were all full-on teenagers, and I swear a cover of one of the Nancy Drews has her driving a car.

I mean I think they're tame (from what I recall), and I did read them when I was, I have no idea, probably somewhere around seven or eight, but I think they weren't meant to be for younger kids when they were published.

That series about the brothers in the late 1800s, early 1900s, (they weren't written then, but set then) whose names I can't recall, but who got into all manner of trouble, those I think would be MG. They got the first toilet in town, and their friend got lost in the caves -- one of the boys was the super smart trouble-maker.

Encyclopedia Brown, also old-school MG, yes?

Along with the Judy Blume stuff wasn't there that series about a girl, Alice, I think, who aged up through a bunch of books, from MG to YA, and went through bullying, sex stuff, etc.?
 

cornflake

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This is the Alice series, well, a NYer article about it -- as I think someone asked for a series in which a character aged up from MG through YA. Voila.

The Great Brain!! These were great.

The All-of-A-Kind Family series is also *awesome* just btw, because now I'm all excited about books I read as a kid, heh.

I'm impressed how long some of these have been in print -- some I found in used bookstores, or family shelves, or regular bookstores and didn't realize how long ago they'd first been printed.
 

sheils

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I am concerned, but not necessarily for marketing reasons. I'm not exactly sure what's that compelling about reading four books devoted to following a kid through highschool.

It's actually a kinda sci-fi, world-in-peril sort of story, where the fish out of water is just one aspect of the MG's challenges. I'm thinking like: Ender's Game of Name of the Wind MG's being just slightly younger and smaller than the others, yet smarter and concerned about a bigger-picture problem than popularity. Does that make sense? It's not crucial to the story (which is one reason I'm wondering in this thread if it's a bad idea to include)... but I kinda like it despite the marketing issues...


Oh and Toothpaste and Be Frank -- it is intended to be a series. I know that compounds the YA/MG debate...
 

sheils

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Thank you all for your replies! (And reminder to self to check my threads more often :)) I'm not sure if I should be concerned or relieved that this question inspires such debate!
(concerned that there is no definite answer / relieved that either way could be possible?)

Upon reflection, I think the tone of my ms is definitely not YA, at least not current-day 1st person POV "voicey" YA. And I think most of the responses here favored MG, so that's what I'll go with (despite it being a series, and possibly reaching out of MG...)

Honestly what I was aiming for in writing this was something similar to books I LOVED when I was 12-13: Dune, Ender's Game, and Harry Potter. Both Dune and Ender's Game were written for an adult audience, but obviously I read them as a MG level reader, so I guess that also supports my ms being MG.