What is a Middle Grade Book?

So Many Books So Little Time.

And that’s just Middle-Grade fiction.

I get asked a lot what a middle-grade book is.

When people hear “middle grade” they often think “middle school.”

Middle-grade fiction is for readers aged 8 to 12 years old.

On the other hand, by the time kids are in middle school, they’re often ready for young adult books.

Here’s a little primer on middle-grade books.

It’ll come in handy when you’re trying to buy books for kids or their teachers…or writing your own.

Within middle grade, the protagonist or main character is usually between 10 and 12 years old.

The reason for that is because readers don’t tend to enjoy reading about kids younger than they are.

You won’t find profanity, graphic violence or sexuality within the pages of a middle-grade book.

The themes often are about the protagonist finding out that the world doesn’t revolve around them.

They start to see that there is nuance to life—it’s not just black and white.

They learn what their place is in their world, and if they don’t like it, they set out to change it.

The plot includes family dynamics, the death of a parent, parents divorcing, bullying, friendships gone awry, new friendships with the elderly or kids their age.

While many middle-grade books will fit solidly within the 8-12 year old range, some will be intended for slightly older or slightly younger children.

Those would be classified upper middle grade or lower middle grade.

Harry Potter is an example of upper middle grade.

Charlotte’s Web is lower middle grade.

Then there are chapter books.

While a middle-grade book has chapters, it’s not considered a chapter book.

A chapter book is for emerging, newly independent, young readers (around 7-8 years old) who are ready for something more challenging than Easy Readers.

They’re not quite ready for middle grade.

The chapters are short, the characters usually have a big personality.

Chapter books tend to have more illustrations than a middle-grade book to help the reader.

Scholastic and Random House publish a lot of this type of book.

My first two manuscripts are for middle grade.

The first, at 60,000 words, is for 8-12-year olds.

That word count might push it to upper middle grade for some publishers.

The second manuscript is lower middle grade because it has fewer words (about 45,000) and because its main character is an animal.

I love writing middle-grade stories, but I’m excited to start writing a chapter book series this year about a character named Benedetta.

As I get further along in the process, I’d like to get your opinion.

Right now, I’m trying to flesh her out—who is she and what are her strengths and weaknesses—and figure out some scenarios for her.