YA or MG?

[The Second Moon]

If I was to write a short story collection in which half of the stories are told from teen POVs and the other half are told form kids POVs is it MG or YA?

A little bit more detail on the POV characters. Two if them are teens (Girl is 17 and the boy is 16. The other two POV characters are a 12 year old girl and a 12 year old boy who has a dog head.

Since one of the POV characters has a dog head, I figured the collection should be MG because teens I think (not sure though) don't want to read about people with animal heads.

But the situation the characters are in is dark. (think A Series of Unfortunate Events dark) The three humans are siblings and their parents died so they went to live with their evil uncle. But the Uncle started the apocalypse because he thinks the kids killed their parents (they didn't) . The apocalypse is weird. It is fueled by the uncle's imagination so anything can happen.

Because of this dark situation and because half of the POV are teens are figured it must be YA... but what about the dog-headed boy?

So I need your help. Based on what information I've given, is it MG or YA?

 

[starrystorm]

A Series of Unfortunate Events was MG. So I think this can easily be MG. Also, in A Series of Unfortunate Events, since you brought it up, Violet was fourteen (then turns fifteen).

 

[The Second Moon]

Thank you, Starrystorm. Maybe if I lower the teens ages to 16 and 15 it would be more be appealing to MG readers?

 

[starrystorm]

Thank you, Starrystorm. Maybe if I lower the teens ages to 16 and 15 it would be more be appealing to MG readers?

I'm no expert, but 16 sounds too high. Maybe 14 and 13. Again, I'm not an expert, so wait and see what others have to say.

 

[The Second Moon]

Okay. Thanks again starry! Maybe 15 and 14?

 

[cornflake]

If I was to write a short story collection in which half of the stories are told from teen POVs and the other half are told form kids POVs is it MG or YA?

A little bit more detail on the POV characters. Two if them are teens (Girl is 17 and the boy is 16. The other two POV characters are a 12 year old girl and a 12 year old boy who has a dog head.

Since one of the POV characters has a dog head, I figured the collection should be MG because teens I think (not sure though) don't want to read about people with animal heads.

But the situation the characters are in is dark. (think A Series of Unfortunate Events dark) The three humans are siblings and their parents died so they went to live with their evil uncle. But the Uncle started the apocalypse because he thinks the kids killed their parents (they didn't) . The apocalypse is weird. It is fueled by the uncle's imagination so anything can happen.

Because of this dark situation and because half of the POV are teens are figured it must be YA... but what about the dog-headed boy?

So I need your help. Based on what information I've given, is it MG or YA?

The premise sounds entirely MG, but having older teens is a problem, same as having an adult POV.

Why do you need the pov of older characters?

 

[The Second Moon]

Well, The older teens think a lot about how they need to protect their younger siblings and they add something that I can't put my finger on yet.

I've seen MG books with 14 year old Protagonists. Maybe I'll make the older siblings twins and they'll both be 14.

 

[KBooks]

So, when you want to write anything that's not just for yourself (i.e. you want other people to read it or even better, purchase it), one thing you have to think about seriously is writing within typical conventions of however that book is going to be classified (genre, age range). If you're writing for yourself, you can write whatever. It doesn't matter the ages, you can have a 40-year-old guy and a 10-year-old boy and examine old guy emotions with a little kid plot. But if you want that story to appeal to others...

So let's look at this one. You have characters in two different age ranges. That's okay if it's just for you. It's also okay if some of them aren't the POV characters and are just secondary characters. But it's more problematic if you're trying to make something marketable.

Then you have your plot. MG books generally have certain types of themes. YA books generally have certain types of themes. You want to read widely in the genre your targeting and understand what those are. How much MG have you read recently? Not old stuff... stuff that's come out recently?

 

[cornflake]

Well, The older teens think a lot about how they need to protect their younger siblings and they add something that I can't put my finger on yet.

I've seen MG books with 14 year old Protagonists. Maybe I'll make the older siblings twins and they'll both be 14.

Why not make the younger pair younger, like 8 or 9, and the older pair like 11? The whole 'uncle's imagination/dog-headed boy' sounds very MG and as KB notes, if you want it to be marketable, your characters should be in the range kids want to read about.

 

[The Second Moon]

Thank you everyone. I think 12 and 9 could work. But what about you guys?

 

[starrystorm]

Thank you everyone. I think 12 and 9 could work. But what about you guys?

Much better.