Many thanks to my Honduran friend and Teacher Extraordinaire Joanna Mojica (see two articles about her activities in my Spotlight Section) for bringing this article to my attention 🙂
Overlooked and Underappreciated: The Middle Grade Reader
So another year came and went, and all the while I just kept waiting and waiting for everyone to suddenly wake up and acknowledge the awesome that is middle grade – but once again, the clock turned over with middle grade still left out in the cold dark. So, there was only one thing for it – for who better than Anne Ursu (Breadcrumbs, The Real Boy) to shine a light on the scene? So take it away, Anne!
Recently, Minnesota Public Radio featured a “young adult” week on one of its shows. Minneapolis author Carrie Mesrobian, author of a much-lauded first novel called Sex & Violence, was one of the guests. She gracefully and intelligently fielded loaded questions about “Content” in YA novels from the hosts and callers, like from the parent who couldn’t find any books appropriate for her fourth grade daughter who reads at an eighth grade level, prompting one area writer to suggest we make bumper stickers that say START SEEING MIDDLE GRADE.
To read more about this topic, click in the YurtBook Photo below
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
I love to write MG, but I think it’s very underserved by publishers. Harry Potter books were all classified as MG, but now everyone talks about them as if they are YA, weird. I think a lot of publishers focus on either picture books or YA, but there are still some good MG books out there.
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MG IS AWESOME, PEOPLE (and ape, and other animals)!!! The best books EVER!!! WOOOOO!!!
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LOL I agree with you and I’d like to see more good quality MG books written and published 🙂
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I wasn’t really sure what MG was until I read this; as I consider what I write to be suitable for 10-14 yr olds, I guess this is what I’m writing…although it must be remembered that adults enjoy MG quite as much as kids.
But I just want to say that I totally agree; you can’t sugar coat things for kids of this age; whilst half of them still believe in Santa, the other half are playing GTA, and know far more about gritty real life subjects than most of us adults would like to believe. I know, because I have 10yr old, and 12 yr old boys living at home. (No, I don’t let them play 18 games at home, but can’t control what games they play at friends houses, unless I risk destroying their friendships)
Its a thorny subject, and I guess writers for this age group have a special responsibility to their readers.
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