If you’ve followed my blog for some time, you probably know by now that I review both Middle Grade and Young Adult books. While MG is geared towards kids ages eight-twelve, YA is typically for teenagers and older. They’re both great, and their age suggestions aren’t limited to those in the age group. I know of adults who read MG and YA (after all, they write most of it!) and teens who read MG. (And review both YA and MG, like myself.)
I’ve been into Middle Grade books since I was seven or eight. I’m very familiar and comfortable with this section. If you give me a name of a book in MG, most likely I’ve either heard of it or have read it – or have read other books by the author. I want to be an author myself someday, and I definitely see myself writing in MG.
Middle Grade books certainly have safer content than Young Adult, but the main problem I have with it is this: the books are for 8-12 year-olds, so most of the main characters are around that age, as well. For kids, what their parents or guardians do or say affects them in everything – how that kid lives, what their story is like. So it makes sense for lots of Middle Grade books’ main plots be something circling around the main character’s parents. But that means that in MG books, there’s adult content written from a more innocent perspective.
I’ve gotten into Middle Grade books before that has foul language, or issues such as a child being abused, shootings, alcoholics, nasty divorces… inevitable things that happen in today’s world. But at eight years old, I wouldn’t understand a book like that. In my reading group in elementary school, my mom said “no” to many books I was required to read for this reason. This is marketed to kids from eight to twelve years old?
As for Young Adult, I’m thirteen, so it’s only been within the past year or two that I’ve branched out and stepped into this section. However, I’m definitely not as comfortable with YA as I am with MG. For one thing, Middle Grade is for younger kids (“tweens”), so I know that most of the books will have cleaner, less mature content. At least for me, I’ve found that YA books have more sexual content than anything. I feel a lot safer picking out a book in MG, so I tend to gravitate towards that area more than I do Young Adult. In fact, I rarely walk into my library or bookstore and pick up a YA book without having checked out the content on blogs I follow beforehand.
That’s not to say that all of Young Adult is inappropriate or unclean. There are lots of great books in this section. Actually, there are several YA books I thought I wouldn’t like, only to find how much I loved them. (I doubted The Selection series for a long time before giving it a try – and if you know me, I love this series!) The issue for me is that books within this section are everything from border-line Adult books (which I had to learn the hard way) to border-line Middle Grade books… and for a bookworm with high standards for “clean” and “unclean” books, it can be tough to differentiate between the two, at first glance.
My issues with Middle Grade and Young Adult books has a simple fix. If there are border-line YA books in MG, and border-line adult or MG books in YA, why can’t there be another section in between these two? A section for 8-12 year olds, a section for 12-year-olds and younger teens (like myself), and a section for older teens. Another thing I would love to see happen is books be rated just as movies are, but that’s a whole other post. 😉 (For more thoughts on that, I really loved Ana’s post on it here. You should definitely check it out!) But I think that adding another section would be really helpful, and an easier way to find good books for my age group.
I love MG & YA books, and I will continue to read and review them. Thankfully, I’ve found a great community of bookworms who are “in between” sections and content, like myself. There are still lots of great books that are right in my comfort zone when it comes to the content I read. This post was a sort of venting-session with my frustration for the types of books that are set out for each age group. But I really do hope something can be done about it, eventually.
what about you? how do you feel about mg & ya… and the content that comes along with them? i would really love to read what you have to say!
