What Makes Middle Grade Great, by Matthew MacNish

Happy December, everyone! I hope you're enjoying the holiday season with plenty of cheer, and like me, you'll have an opportunity to visit with family before the year's end.

Today, I wanted to talk about why I love middle grade as a category so much. Middle grade resides at that special place, when kids are growing up, and becoming a little independent, at least in their thinking, if not in their activities, and so middle grade novels often tell a certain kind of story, one that is usually magnificent, and full of wonder.

So what are some of my favorite things about middle grade books?

The Covers

I don't know that there's any real rule in publishing, but in my experience, middle grade books always get the best covers. They're usually illustrated, which makes for a far more artistic object, and allows the cover to be much more imaginative. Young adult books occasionally have interesting covers, but a photographed model almost never compares to a lovingly illustrated cover. Adult book covers are just plain boring. Vague stock photography and giant, bold type. Snore.

Here are some of my favorite examples of gorgeously illustrated middle grade novel covers:

The Authors

Of course we have many amazing middle grade authors here at Project Middle Grade Mayhem, and I'm sure they're all wonderful in real life as well, but I have also met some of my favorite middle grade authors at conferences and conventions, and they really are wonderful people. I've met Shannon Messenger, Lisa McMann, Lou Anders, Kelly Barnhill, and others, and they all clearly love books, love reading and writing, and especially, love ...

The Readers

Don't get me wrong, teenagers are great (I'm personally the parent of two of them), but there is no time quite as magical as that in-between time, that age when hugs are still okay, and curling up on a weekend with a book to finish it in one sitting isn't "so dorky, dad! Gosh."

From the actual middle-graders, to the third, fourth, and fifth graders who read up, the readers are truly the very best thing about middle grade books. There is something so special about kids and reading, about what books can do for their minds, that really makes bringing stories to their attention one of the most wonderful things in the world.

I'm not personally published, so I haven't had that experience yet, but I have seen it happen, and it is truly beautiful.

What are your favorite things about middle grade books?

A WORD FROM THE READER: Guest post by Lyric Unger Bowditch

As we drive down from a weekend in NY, talk turns to books. Actually, my daughter and I began to discuss books we love. This happens a lot. Right now, my youngest is busy with his nose deep in one and my husband is driving. We left my eldest back in NY so the conversation was between Lyric and me. Lyric, who is now 15, has often been my sounding board, my first reader, first editor, first critic. She taught me a lot about writing for kids. First and foremost, don’t do it. That is, don’t ever write down to kids because they are smarter than most adults.

So I asked her to write her own thoughts about YA/MG literature. She is an excellent writer, reader, critic, poet, and I am so glad to invite her here today.

Welcome, Lyric.

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In the words of Le Petit Prince, “grown-ups like numbers . . . You have to tell them, ‘I saw a house worth a hundred thousand francs.’ Then they exclaim, ‘What a pretty house!’” If a novel has a 4.5-out-of-5-star rating, in the eyes of such adults, it must be a good book. Too often, adults feel a societal obligation to bear through literature that may not truly interest them because of its social or intellectual prestige. Books written for adults don’t always require the same attention-to-reader that young adult literature does.

As a young adult, I can attest that if a novel doesn’t engage me, I don’t care how highly it was rated— I’m going to put it down. If the writer doesn’t paint a world so visceral that my own world disappears as I read, then, regardless of the writer’s esteem in literary circles across the nation, I won’t keep reading. You authors of young adult literature have the difficult task of writing wholly captivating stories, as the story is all that your audience cares about. Accordingly, young adult literature makes up some of the best literature on the whole planet (and the whole universe, for that matter).

As far as I’m concerned, the labels “young adult” and “middle-grade” are largely misleading. Young adult novels aren’t too callow or adolescent to be liked only by young adults. Rather, they’re exciting and enthralling enough to be liked by young adults. Any adult that claims to be too sophisticated to be interested by Harry Potter or too refined to enjoy Percy Jackson and the Olympians is, in fact, too uncultured to appreciate fine literature on its own merit and the pleasure of being lost in a good book.

-Lyric Unger Bowditch

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I thought I’d include a photo of Lyric. Hers is beautiful face that shines from the cover of The Ravens of Solemano… so I’ve included that.

Thank you, my wonderful daughter! – eden unger bowditch

The Luck of Reading The Luck Uglies: Review of an Adventurous Debut Novel by Paul Durham

There are books we all hope to find that do more than simply tell a story. These books take us with them. They take us with them on the adventure and we feel like we know the world around us when we go. And these are rare treasures we keep and pass along. Author Paul Durham’s first MG/YA novel, The Luck Uglies, is one of those rare books.

An adventure and an introduction to Village Drowning and all its inhabitants, The Luck Uglies has a timeless feel, as if it might just as believably come from the hidden library in a castle as from the work of a modern writer.  It is both clever, never underestimating the intelligence of the young reader, and exciting, never forgetting that everyone loves a good adventure.

 

We were able to catch Paul Durham in the midst of all the excitement of The Luck Uglies. While there are heaps of questions I could list, like Rye O'Chanter, we will have to be content with a few at a time:

1. Who are a few of your favorite authors and/or books (few people have just one!) that might have inspired some of your writing? 

 There are so many great middle grade authors and books it is indeed difficult to narrow it down, but I always find myself coming back to the same examples.

The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander has stayed with me ever since I was a child. I’ve reread the series twice as an adult and it still holds up as compelling reading. Its five books tell a story that is timeless and epic in scope, and yet the storytelling remains intimate and accessible.

A more contemporary favorite is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. This was one of those books that just knocked me over when I read it because it was so good. It's hard to call it a children's book because, really, it's for everybody. It is exactly the type of book that inspires me to be a better writer.

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2. You mention that you started telling the story to your kids. Who were your first characters? 

Rye O'Chanter was the very first character to make it onto the page. This seems so fitting because she was heavily inspired by my own daughter, who prompted my to write The Luck Uglies in the first place. Of course, Rye needed cohorts, so her little sister Lottie and her best friends, Folly and Quinn, weren't far behind. 

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3. There is such a rich Village Drowning history the reader can sense. Can you give us a few things about the place that aren't in the book? 

That's such a great question--I often think of Village Drowning as its own "character." Like any character, there are things about it that even I haven't discovered yet, but here are two tidbits I can share. Beneath the streets of the village, there is a place even older than the Spoke that the link rats call home. Also, in addition to the bogs and river, Drowning is bordered by a brackish body of water called the Great Eel Pond. Enormous culverts drain water from the pond under, rather than over, the village. Needless to say, Drowning remains damp even under the best of circumstances. 

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4. Is this the beginning of a journey for Rye? Are there more Luck Ugly book coming? 

Yes, I'm happy to report that this is just the start of Rye's journey. The Luck Uglies is a trilogy, with more books to come in spring 2015 and 2016. I'm finishing Book 2 right now.

Durham weaves a tale that truly brings you into Rye O’Chanter’s strange and mysterious world. The story makes you wish the book would not end so you can uncover more secrets that promise to be hidden there.

- eden unger bowditch

Critical success vs. reader success: the correlation, by Yahong Chi

Take any random middle-grade bookworm out there. How much would you be willing to bet that they pay any attention to or place any value in the blurbs—brief lines of praise from big-name authors or review companies—on the cover of their current favourite novel?

If you said zero, high-five. Me too.

The reason for this varies, but I’ve found that it mostly comes down to the fact that readers like to find out what they like for themselves. If they’re not paying much attention to the book industry (and I’m operating under the assumption that most middle-graders don’t), then the praise of a sterile name like “Kirkus Reviews” or “Horn Book” doesn’t mean much to them.

Author blurbs are a little different, as readers do collect and remember past favourite authors. So if your middle-grader is a big fan of James Dashner, for example, they might be inclined to give some of the (many) books he’s blurbed a try. But in general, from my personal observations, our target audience—kids—does not place anywhere near as much importance on blurbs as we in the industry do.

So do those blurbs mean anything? Is there a correlation between a book’s critical success and its sales numbers (i.e. its reader success)?

Common sense says “yes”. If critics love a book, then surely all the aspects which were loved by reviewers will translate into readers’ reading experience, even if they’re not actively looking out for it, right? But there’s a marked difference here: while reviewers tend to know precisely what they’re looking for (and what is missing), such as a lack of character growth, immersive worldbuilding, or quicker pacing, young readers aren’t so specific.

To illustrate this point, I asked a middle-grader to describe what she liked about a recent book. She said she liked how it had superpowers, and super-interesting characters, and it had lots of good ideas. I asked her what she didn’t like about it; she said she felt it was too long, and the plot could’ve been “spun” better. When I asked her to elaborate, she said she didn’t really know, but she just felt like the author could’ve done the plot more differently, better.

Now, if a critic were reviewing the book, would they say the same things (in much fancier lingo, of course)? Or would they note completely different things, because they were looking for different things? This is a question which I as a reviewer am personally very interested in, especially when you look at examples like the Artemis Fowl series, which has been reviewed as “clichéd” and worse, and yet has had so much commercial success.

What do you think? What kind of correlation exists between critical success and reader success?

-Yahong

What was your First Middle Grade Novel?

Merry Monday morning, Mayhemers! I know, it's hard to be chipper on a Monday, but I'm here at work, at 6 AM, so I've got little choice. Well, I suppose I could be grumpy, but it's hard enough to make it through the day as is.

Anyway, today I want to talk about what the first book we fell in love with around the age of MG readers (or in my case, a little before, but that's okay). Now, I know, this is a bit of a stretch. There was no such thing as MG or YA when Tolkien wrote The Hobbit, and it's hard to argue it's a Middle Grade novel when the main character is 50 years old in the book (if I remember correctly). But, I think the argument can be made that were The Hobbit written today, someone in one of the Big 6's marketing departments would sell it as a Middle Grade Fantasy.

Now, I could easily be wrong, but I'll try to make an argument for why it might work. For one thing, even though Bilbo is 50 something, he's a Hobbit, and Hobbits, while hale and hardy, and somehow far more resistant to the power of magic rings than men, aren't actually considered adults until they're 33. So a fifty-year-old Hobbit is still somewhat young. And besides, even full grown Hobbits are just cute. They're always sort of roly-poly, optimistic, and clever. They're the perfect characters for young readers to enjoy, even if they do smoke and drink a lot.

Another thing that I think makes this book one that would fit in well as MG is the plot, and the level of adult content it includes. Which is to say: very little. There is some violence, but it is almost always resolved comically or with a pleasant escape, and there is never any death, unless you count the dragon at the end. Bilbo and his Dwarves escape the trolls when the sun comes up and turns them to stone. They escape the Goblins when the Eagles pluck them from the trees. They escape the Wood Elves by riding barrels down the river. These are all clever ways to get out of danger without including something that would frighten young children. Heck, I read this book in like third grade, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I had the read along graphic novel version that came with a vinyl record you could listen to.

So I could probably go on about this book, and Tolkien, forever, but the point here is that this was the first full length novel I read as a boy, and it engendered my love of reading ever since. It wasn't technically a MG novel at the time, but I think it would fit in on that shelf today, and I have certainly let my kids read it, as young as they wanted to. I can't wait until my nephew is 8 or so, and I can turn him on to Middle Earth as well. Are any of you as excited for the film adaptation as I am?

What do you guys think? Have you read The Hobbit? Think it would sell as MG if published today? What MG books first influenced your love of reading?

Reading to write

We all know that one of the foremost pieces of advice for writers in general is to read what you write. For us, obviously, it's middle-grade.

But we hardly have enough time to squeeze in a daily (or weekly) spurt of writing time. As well, the perennial fear of losing one's "touch" if we start a new novel in the middle of writing our own pops up. And then there's the issue of what to read, exactly. If I write contemporary, does that mean I can only learn from like contemporary novels? It's enough to turn a writer off books totally. ...Well, probably not. After all, we loved books enough to try our hand at this career.

The best way to tackle these problems, for me, is to set a reading goal.

Kind of like a word quota, this reading goal will be specific, achievable and balanced. (I'm feeling like a personal trainer of some sort now, hehe...) For a very basic guideline, all you have to do is set a specific number of books you want to have finished by the end of the year. Of course, being the type A personality that I am, I came up with two more guidelines you can apply to build your to-read list:

Age category & genre. If you'd like to focus on sci-fi middle-grade and dabble in fantasy on the side, go ahead and tweak your list. A while later you might want to get back into the groove of writing contemporary. In that case, switch a few titles up your list, easy-peasy.

Checkpoints. Saying you want to read fifty books by the end of August is perhaps just a little too broad. Checkpoints are dandy little things that can help keep you on track. (Okay, now I really feel like a personal trainer.) Try setting a goal to read a certain number a month -- and make adjustments for holidays, too. For example, spring break's just started. So, I decided to plow through at least ten books in my ginormous stack of library books this week. I might not make it, but then again, I might! (And if I don't, I'll probably be paying some fines pretty soon...)

Over the book blogosphere you'll find tonnes of reading challenges in all varieties aimed specifically at helping you, well, read books. Or you could keep it simple and just aim for a number. Whichever route you choose, you can't go wrong; after all, you're reading. What could be more right?

--Yahong

PS: As for me, I've read thirty-four books so far. Seeing how it's only March... I'm optimistic. ;) What's your goal this year?

DO Judge a Book by its Cover

This is my daughter, Madison. She's ten years old. She is basically the perfect middle grade reader. She reads some stuff above her level, like The Hunger Games, but she especially loves books about kids around her age. Mayhemer stuff.

This photo is pretty recent, but she reads so many books, and reads them so fast, I can't even remember what she was reading that day. I think it may have been a Rick Riordan.

Anyway, I decided it would be fun to poll her about some of her favorite covers of the books we own, and see if she could explain why she liked them. The rules were: no books by our friends at PM. We do love us some of these books, but it didn't seem fair to just toot our own horn, so to speak. Also, they had to be books she hasn't read yet. No letting the story itself cloud her judgement. So, I asked her to line up her five favorite books, based on covers alone, of the middle grade novels we own.

Here are her picks, in order from favorite to, well, fifth favorite, and some brief thoughts from each of us:

Peter and the Shadow Thieves

Madi: Peter and the Shadow of Thieves - It looks cool, because there is a shadowy figure trying to take the two kids. It also looks cool because it looks as if the kids are flying.

Daddy: I can see why she would like this. The figure in the foreground is a bit creeptastic, but it's not so prominent as to be terrifying. I too love the flying kids, and the pixie dust or the faerie that seems to be following them. I haven't read this one, but isn't this the second book in the series?

The Time Travelers

Madi: The Time Travelers - Two kids are falling from strange branches. I also like the quote it has on the cover.

Daddy: Strange branches, eh? I suppose you could call them that. If this was my list, I would have put this cover first. I forget what this style of drawing is called, with the accentuated black outlines around things, but I love it. I assume she means the quote about Harry Potter. You can't really beat that kind of comparison.

The Familiars

Madi: The Familiars - It's a cute cover, because there are animals on it. It's also is a book you would think the animals would talk.

Daddy: I bet they do. I don't like this cover as much as the next one, but there is something to be said for that cat's stance, and his poor torn ear.

Museum of Thieves

Madi: Museum of Thieves - The boy and girl look like they will walk up into a mysterious place. I also like the name of the book, Museum of Thieves.

Daddy: This is probably my second favorite of all these covers. I mean the bird, the lighting, the air of mystery with the kids backs turned. Everything about this cover screams adventure inside to me.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoners Dilemma

Madi: The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoners Dilemma - I like how it's crowded, but subtle. I also like how it's called the "Mysterious" Benedict Society.

Daddy: I don't know why I couldn't find a better image of this one. It sure looks blurry, doesn't it? Anyway, this is like the third of fourth book in this series, and Madison has read the first two and loved them. All the covers are similar, kind of quirky, kind of fun, and always a bit busy.

So that's it. What do you guys think? How would you have ordered these? Or what are your five favorite books, based on covers alone?