July 20, 2015 
Jane 
I have been agenting for a long time, and I’ve met a lot of interesting and wonderful writers and learned a great deal about different categories of fiction and nonfiction, what sells and what doesn’t. But, I am always eager to learn new things.
Over the last several years we have all heard a great deal about Young Adult books and what seems to work and what doesn’t. And we at DGLM represent a bunch of bestsellers in this category. One of the interesting things in this category is the crossover market that has developed with books like THE HUNGER GAMES series and titles authored by John Green and James Dashner. And I have been fortunate to represent a number of significant new YA authors.
When we were looking to choose a category for our next book club meeting, Jim McCarthy wisely came up with the concept of all of us reading a recently published Middle Grade book and I loved this idea as this is a category I am just now dipping my toe into. The potential market is huge since the Harry Potter series put the genre on the map and obviously crossed over into an adult market.
To prepare, I have studied the category a bit. I know that the age range of readers is between 8 and 12 and the average length of books is 100 pages or less. Here is a piece I found that clearly describes this category and its traditional market.
Middle Grade classics include the previously mentioned Harry Potter titles, Charlotte’s Web, Matilda and our own Chris Grabenstein’s Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and The Island of Dr. Libris.
So I chose as my book club title (with Jim’s help) Ratscalibur by Josh Lieb. And my thought is that I will read this and then give it to my seven-year-old granddaughter, Elena, who is a terrific reader, to see what she thinks. Stay tuned for our thoughts.
I’d also love to know what your experiences are with Middle Grade and what you (and your children) have enjoyed reading in the category.
Until recently, my MG reading was sporadic at best. Mostly, I’d read authors I already knew. But from January-April of this year, I sat on the judging panel for the Canadian MG award, The Red Cedar. Publishers sent us approximately 85 novels, about 20 or so which ended up being too young or YA and so we didn’t actually read. Still…that means I read a LOT of MG. Two things struck me…the first is how wide the age gap is, and the second is how outstanding some of the available books are.
The Red Cedar covers Grades 4-8 and the book should be appropriate for at least two grade levels. Grade 4 books are vastly different than Grade 8. to say the least! In the end, the kids in Canada have until spring of 2016 to vote for their favourite from the shortlist (12 books) as long as they have read at least five of the books on the list. To see the list, go here: http://www.redcedaraward.ca/index.php?s=10&id=9999 While there was an abundance of really great stuff, the four judges had no problem coming up with a list…these really are outstanding reads.
I highly recommend The Night Gardener for a scary but not too scary read! And Audrey Cow for the younger end of MG (and for writer’s interested in seeing great examples of voice).
Oh, another thing that I found interesting was how many of these books were in first person. I’d always sort of understood that the norm was MG should be third person. I don’t know if this is a new trend, or a Canadian thing, but it really worked for me as a reader.
My 10-year-old is a voracious reader. She comes by it honestly.
Of course, she loved the Harry Potter series and was devastated once she reached the end of that last book.
In the midst of her Middle Grade despair, we discovered Katherine Rundell’s Rooftoppers together. It was not only imaginative (and deliciously quirky) but so beautifully written. I may have to read it again by myself.
A few other suggestions:
She also took to The School for Good and Evil series, and is excited that the third installment comes out today.
She read Frindle for school and encouraged me to read it. She knows me well enough to understand that I’d be teary by the end of that book.
Guilty as charged.
She also liked the two Mr. Terrupt books by Rob Buyea. Wonder (and its follow up, the name of which escapes me) were also a big hit with her. And we just got done listening to Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover on the drive to Universal (for, yes, Harry Potter World) last week.
Harry Potter is Young Adult, not Middle Grade. Please don\\’t pick up Harry Potter expecting Charlottes Web or Percy Jackson. It\\’s much more adult, I haven\\’t a clue why it\\’s being miscategorized. As someone who majored in Library Sciences in College, I can tell you, nothing about Harry Potter resembles Middle Grade. The characters are teens, the movies are mostly PG-13, the content and themes too mature, visceral, and geared towards and older audience, the writing too mature, the stories scope to complex and heavy, their current marketing aiming at older audiences, and their statistical demographic, who reads the books most, between the ages of 15 and 35. The series is crossover. The first two books are Upper Middle Grade. But the series is Young Adult. In fact, it\\’s more mature than some Adult lit out there. I haven\\’t a clue why people keep calling it Middle Grade