Why I love middle grade/young YA
Let's face it, young adult books can be tough to read. They like to ask hard questions, like "is the way we're living the best way" and they explore things like love, heartbreak, courage and what it means to truly be yourself. It's about honour and duty and sacrifice and not getting killed by the villain from the other dimension who has a really big gun.
Sometimes, I just want to escape.
I'm not complaining about my life, mostly because I think it rocks, but sometimes I've had a hard day and I don't want to ponder the morality of war (thank you, John Marsden) or the age old the rights of the few vs the rights of the many issue. Occasionally, I just want to dive into someone else's world where I know there's going to be a happy ending.
This is where middle grade/young YA comes in. I say middle grade/young YA because middle grade is for 8-12 year olds, and I'm a little too old to be reading books for 8 year olds. This category of books is right in the middle, for about 11-14 year olds. And I know that 14 year olds read "true" YA novels and some 11 year olds read books for 8 year olds, but that's how I'm classifying it. The novels are just grown up enough to have complex storytelling and language techniques (it's not all "She had dark hair. She had dark eyes. She had a scar on her nose. She smiled. I smiled back. She waved, blah blah blah) that I can read it without throwing something, but it doesn't have the themes that YA has.
YA is great. I truly love it. But I don't always want to go through an intense journey of love and death and heartbreak. Sometimes I just want to see the magic in life.
You guys? Has everyone outgrown middle grade or do you still pick up the occasional middle grade book?
Sometimes, I just want to escape.
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| One of my all time favourite middle grade books. |
I'm not complaining about my life, mostly because I think it rocks, but sometimes I've had a hard day and I don't want to ponder the morality of war (thank you, John Marsden) or the age old the rights of the few vs the rights of the many issue. Occasionally, I just want to dive into someone else's world where I know there's going to be a happy ending.
This is where middle grade/young YA comes in. I say middle grade/young YA because middle grade is for 8-12 year olds, and I'm a little too old to be reading books for 8 year olds. This category of books is right in the middle, for about 11-14 year olds. And I know that 14 year olds read "true" YA novels and some 11 year olds read books for 8 year olds, but that's how I'm classifying it. The novels are just grown up enough to have complex storytelling and language techniques (it's not all "She had dark hair. She had dark eyes. She had a scar on her nose. She smiled. I smiled back. She waved, blah blah blah) that I can read it without throwing something, but it doesn't have the themes that YA has.
YA is great. I truly love it. But I don't always want to go through an intense journey of love and death and heartbreak. Sometimes I just want to see the magic in life.
You guys? Has everyone outgrown middle grade or do you still pick up the occasional middle grade book?
You'll often find me lurking in the middle grade aisle. I find that the stories are often quite good without some of the angst we find so frequently in YA. Sometimes, I'm just not in the mood for angst. Thanks for the post!
ReplyDeleteThey are great, aren't they? And yes, there's so much angst in YA, it gets a bit much sometimes.
DeleteInterestingly enough, I'll be taking an online adolescent literature course in the spring that will have me reading a lot of middle-ish grade books. I'm excited for it! I think every now and then we do need to read stories that are happy, full of heart. Something to let us know the world can be a beautiful place. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. ^_^
ReplyDeleteI agree :) It's good to know that there's a happy ending waiting at the end sometimes. Good luck with your course, and thanks for commenting!
DeleteI totally understand you here, and this was one of the main reasons I became disenchanted with adult literature and moved to YA, because even though YA deals with a lot of heavier themes, it still feels lighter than the cynicism I found in so much adult literature. But yes, I do read Middle Grade/Young YA from time to time as well, and for the same reasons.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read much adult novels, but what from what I have read it seems very disheartening. In middle grade and usually YA there's a happy ending waiting for you. So I agree with your statements :)
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