Last month, I went over book categories for younger kids. This time we’re focusing on older readers.
Middle Grade Books (Ages 9-12)
Now we’re stepping up in terms of story, language and length, with books ranging from 20,000- to 50,000 words. While they may feature a few illustrations, especially with chapter headings, the readers’ imaginations will supply most of the imagery. Think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of my favorites. This category is vast since it includes books like the Harry Potter series, which is long, complex, and occasionally dark or even violent along with simpler books like the Magic Treehouse series. Children’s literature specialist Jenny Bowman has divided the age category into lower middle and upper middle grades. If you’re targeting this age group, I suggest you take a look at her post.
Young Adult (Ages 12-18)
Known as YA, young adult books run about as long as your average novel—between 50,000 and 100,000 words. The difference lies in the subject matter, which is geared toward the concerns of adolescent readers. Issues of identity, dealing with life-changing events, and contending with challenges reign supreme in this category. When I was teaching in a one-room school right out of college, Judy Blume ruled. According to Wikipedia, “As one of the first authors to write young adult novels about controversial topics including masturbation, menstruation, teen sex, birth control, and death, Blume was a catalyst for the movement of controversial topics being expressed in children’s and young adult literature.” The voice and theme in YA novels reflect its readers, thereby separating the category from adult and new adult books.
New Adult (Ages 18-25)
A newcomer category, these books differ from YA books and adult books only in terms of topic/theme, voice and the age of their characters (which tend to be the same age as their readers). While some new adult books feature explicit sex, this hybrid category is certainly not defined by that but rather by the concerns featured in its storylines. As I write this, the top two Amazon new adult/college romance books (which is how they identify the category) are Blind Date and Temptation: The Hunted Series – Book One.
Now that you’ve got a sense of how the categories shake out in terms of both younger and older readers’ ages, let’s move onto the storyline and characters in your book(s).
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