When I went to the library last weekend, I checked out a lot of middle-grade books that I’ve been wanting to read.
Middle-grade novels were actually my first love when I first started writing. The age range of 9-12 were magical years for me and it’s no surprise that this genre is what I first gravitated to when I started writing. The novel that snagged me an agent was a middle-grade.
In a way, it may be good to read some middle-grade novels while I’m revising this YA paranormal. It’s very different and I don’t find myself comparing the work to my own.
I was surprised to find the Newbery books Savvy by Ingrid Law and The Underneath by Kathi Applet were available since for the longest these books were always checked out—I guess it was just meant for me to read them finally.
Middle-grade can be really different from writing YA. For me, middle-grade novels deal more with how kids deal with the cards that have been handed to them—they don’t have a lot autonomy as far as choices to be made. In other areas, MG novels just deal with kids being kids—without all that extra angst sometimes involved in YA.
Sigh. Reading these books makes me all nostalgic for returning and writing another middle-grade novel. I have several ideas.
Even though my next writing project is YA—you never know what may happen…
