More About Claire Legrand

When I first sat down to write The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, I did a lot of research about what makes middle grade books, well, middle grade books.

Sure, I’d read tons of them. In fact, a lot of my favorite books of all time were — and still are! — middle grade (A Wrinkle in Time, The Golden Compass, Matilda, to name a few). But I’d never actually sat down and thought about these books as a writer. What made these books middle grade books? What makes any book middle grade? And, as someone who was also interested in writing young adult books, what are the key differences between middle grade and young adult books?

As I read through Tweets, writers’ forums, and blog posts, I realized I wasn’t the only one with these questions. Lots of people were wondering the very same things.

Now, it’s a couple of years later. I’ve sold two middle grade books and two young adult books, and am currently working on one of each. Through lots of reading, thinking, and writing, writing, writing, I’ve settled on several key differences between middle grade and young adult books. Knowing these differences helps me navigate between writing for these two connected but unique age groups.

It can be tough, writing both. But, if you keep a few important things in mind, it can also be a blast! You can satisfy both your angst-ridden, more jaded side, and also the more innocent side that still peeks through wardrobes for the smell of pines and snow. Just in case.

Let’s start off with a list. I LOVE LISTS.

Age: Tweens or Teens?
Romance: Kissy-Kissy or Kissy-Kissy?
Swearing: Darn or Damn?
Violence: PG or PG-13?
Experience: Internal or External?
Journey: Only Just Begun or Finally Getting Somewhere?
Awareness: Observing or Analyzing?
Language: Simple or Complex?
Voice: 3^rd Person or 1^st Person (Or Does It Really Matter)?

Now, let’s take a look at these one at a time.

Age: Tweens or Teens?

The easiest way to tell if a book is middle grade or young adult is (obviously) the age of the protagonist. Usually this matches the age of your readers. For MG, this would be readers from about 9-12; for young adult, 14 and up (although a lot of younger kids read up to older, YA book; I’m generalizing here). Also, the age of 13, in my opinion, is tricky, and I’ll get into that in a second.

Another easy identifier: MG characters are in upper elementary school through middle school (let’s say 4th grade through 8th grade, depending on whether the book skews younger or older). YA characters are in high school. In fact, I would say they must be in high school (or about to be in high school, or just leaving it, but not actually in college yet).

Something I’ve observed: As a general rule, I suggest avoiding 13-year-old main characters. 13 falls in that strange gap between MG and YA books that bookstores and publishers sometimes aren’t sure how to handle; the character is a little too old for MG, a little too young for YA. I actually had to age down one of my MG protagonists for this very reason, and I know of other authors who have had to do this as well. (It’s different, though, if your character starts young and ages throughout the series.)

Romance: Kissy-Kissy or Kissy-Kissy?

There can absolutely be romance in MG books. Both of my MG books have something I would call “romantic stirrings” if that didn’t sound so… weird and slightly fusty. Let’s just say: MG characters are starting to figure out what it is to “like like” someone. Handholding, first kisses, and crushes are all okay. Think Meg Murry and Calvin O’Keefe in A Wrinkle in Time. Their romantic feelings are largely innocent; lust is not a major component.

On the other hand, romance in YA is much more sexually charged. Kisses, making out, even more than that if the story calls for it. When I was a teenager, I was the overachieving salutatorian drum major, and yet my high school experience was still sexually and romantically charged. Even when nothing overt is happening to your characters, the undertones should still be there. Adolescence is, after all, a period of sexual awakening.

Swearing: Darn or Damn?

Let’s be real. Kids swear, even MG kids. But when you’re writing a MG book, stay away from cursing, as a general rule — especially by the main characters. (Mild swearing from peripheral characters might be okay, depending on the situation. Think a frustrated dad or a gruff wizard blurting, “Damn!” Toeing the line, but could work, depending on context.) Remember that the people helping your MG readers find their books are teachers, librarians, and parents. They hopefully will be reading or researching about your book before their kids read it, and swearing kid characters might turn them off. Plus, in my opinion, it doesn’t fit the MG voice.

In YA, however, characters swearing is much more acceptable. Your readers are older, it fits the voice better, and YA books can of course be “edgier” than MG books. But always think of your story; is the cursing necessary to convey a tone, setting, or emotion? Then by all means, do it! Done well, it can add to the authenticity of your voice. But don’t insert those four-letter words thoughtlessly or just to be “edgy.”

Violence: PG  or PG-13?

Let’s think about this in terms of movies. Look what the MPAA guidelines have to say about PG and PG-13 violence:

PG: There may be some profanity and some depictions of violence or brief nudity. But these elements are not deemed so intense as to require that parents be strongly cautioned beyond the suggestion of parental guidance.

PG-13: There may be depictions of violence in a PG-13 movie, but generally not both realistic and extreme or persistent violence.

I like these guidelines for MG (PG) and YA (PG-13) books, too. It’s not a perfect comparison, but it’s a good starting point to consider when you’re wondering if a scene is too violent, or if your book is too violent overall. Think of it this way: In your MG fantasy, the kids might fight the baddies at the end with some sort of magical powers, or a magical object they found. But they won’t be in a bloody melee, stabbing and impaling and beheading (which could very well happen in a PG-13 movie/YA book). Think of this as “fantasy violence” versus “rough violence.” Also, in a MG book, there might be a big conflict at the end, but there won’t be fistfights and swordfights peppered throughout, making the violence pervasive (but this could happen in a YA book).

It all comes down to using your best judgment. Excessive, gratuitous violence has no place in children’s or YA literature. Remember: You want your book to be in libraries and schools. (You might also want to have awesome fight scenes in your book. You can do both! Just do it thoughtfully.)

Experience: Internal or External?

One of the elements that best differentiates MG from YA is how the main character experiences the world.

The MG character’s experience is internal. His world is quite small. He is still largely dependent on his parents or guardians for transportation, for money. He still frequently uses his imagination, at times blurring the lines between pretend and reality. He is focused on his own world — his house, his family, his school friends, and how this all relates to him. His question: What is my place in my own world?

The YA character’s experience is external. Her world is much bigger. She might have a car, she might have a job. Her parents let her stay out later. The time of “playing pretend” is long gone. She is focused on her own world, sure, but she is also beginning to see the world beyond the familiar sphere of family, friends, school, home. She is introduced to issues, experiences, characters, ideals completely foreign to her, completely outside what she has always known. Her question: What is my place in the larger world?

Journey: Only Just Begun or Finally Getting Somewhere?

Another big indicator is where the character is at the end of his story. What has the character accomplished, how has the character changed, and what comes next?

At the end of a MG book, the main character has experienced something, in her own world, that has changed everything. She now sees her world in a different way. The MG protagonist has started the process of becoming who she will grow up to be. Anything could happen now; her journey has only just begun.

On the other hand, at the end of a YA book, the main character’s world has collided with the outside world, changing everything. He now sees his world as it relates to the outside world. For a long time, the YA protagonist has been trying to figure out who he will grow up to be. What he believes in, what he wants, who he is. This experience has helped start to answer these questions. He still has many other questions, of course, and who knows what life beyond high school will bring? But now, at last, he’s finally getting somewhere.

Awareness: Observing or Analyzing?

One thing I have to watch out for when I write — especially when I’ve just been working on a YA project — is that my MG characters aren’t too aware of what they’re feeling, that their observations aren’t too astute. Remember, these are 9- to 12-year-old kids we’re talking about here. Some of them will be more astute than others, of course, but they’re going to be feeling and experiencing a lot of strange, scary things for the first time. They won’t always know what these things mean.

A YA character, on the other hand, is much more capable of drawing on past experiences to analyze new experiences. This is exaggerating, but it’s kind of like when an infant cries because he’s tired. He isn’t capable of thinking, “I’m crying because I’m hungry. I need to get some food.” All he knows is “WAHHHHHHH crueelllll worlllldddd…”

Let’s look at the same situation — a girl realizing she has a crush on someone — from a YA perspective and then a MG perspective.

YA:

Peter ruffled my hair, just as he’d done a million times over the years. I’d never paid much attention to the act before, aside from sometimes using it as an excuse to punch him in the arm or spit my drink at him. But this time, it was different. This time, something sparked inside me when his hand touched my hair. When he let go, his fingers trailed down my neck and off my shoulders. Heat flooded through me, warm and slow, making my fingertips tingle. When I pulled away, hugging myself to stay upright, I thought I saw something in his eyes, something foreign. Heated. And as shocked as I was.

MG:

Leah closed her eyes and counted backwards from ten. She couldn’t do this; she was too frightened. It was too hard to breathe. But then she felt breath very near her face and heard a low growling sound. She opened her eyes, and screamed. Michael was making his “gorp” face, where he would stretch the top of his mouth one way and the bottom of his mouth another way, and cross his eyes, and growl like a gorilla.

“Scared you, huh?” He grinned. The gorp face melted.

Leah rolled her eyes. “No.”

“I totally did.”

“Maybe.”

“And Gorp triumphs again!” Then Michael looked away. Things got very quiet. “You can do this, Leah. I know you can. You can do anything.”

He said it like he might have said, “The sky is blue” or “You are so not a morning person.” Leah watched him, a curious feeling flipping around in her stomach. She suddenly wanted very much to grab his hand and hold onto it, something she’d never wanted to do with anyone before, and certainly not Michael. Michael made gorp faces. Michael didn’t hold hands.

If you look at those above examples, you can see that the YA character is very aware of what is happening to her. She catalogs Peter’s every movement and every flicker of expression, analyzing them, analyzing herself. The last line is the kicker: And as shocked as I was. Shocked because she knows exactly what that feeling of heat is, what it means for her friendship with Peter, and what it could mean for their future.

In the MG example, Leah makes a similar observation about an important moment between her and Michael, but her observations only go skin-deep. She wants to hold Michael’s hand (but she doesn’t know why). She’d never wanted to hold hands with him before (because that’s just not something they do; they make funny faces at each other). She doesn’t take the next step to think about what that means; she merely observes what’s happened and files it away for later.

Language: Simple or Complex?

This is a simple and intuitive point that I don’t want to belabor, but make sure that both your language and sentence structure are appropriate. If you look at the examples above, there is an obvious difference between the YA prose and the MG prose. Part of that is due to the fact that the YA is written in 1^st person and the MG in 3^rd, but part of it is due to differences between YA and MG voices in general.

Take the following sentence from the YA example:

I’d never paid much attention to the act before, aside from sometimes using it as an excuse to punch him in the arm or spit my drink at him.

Now, if I were writing this same instance in a MG book, even from the same POV, it would look different:

I’d never really paid attention to the hair-ruffling thing before. Maybe sometimes I’d get him back with a punch to the arm or by spitting in his face.

The language in this rewritten MG version is simpler, as is the sentence structure. It’s not a huge difference, but it is noticeable.

Beyond just simplifying language or being mindful of vocabulary, there’s also the matter of word choice and what it implies thematically. Let’s look at this, again from the above example:

Heat flooded through me, warm and slow, making my fingertips tingle.

The above description, especially within the context of the situation and the surrounding sentences, would seem out of place in a MG book. It’s too sexually charged, too intimate. Let’s look at it rewritten for a MG audience:

I started feeling hot, like when you don’t know the answer in class and everyone’s staring at you. Only, it was nice this time.

Subtle changes, but they make a huge difference. The second example is more innocent and less physical. Think carefully about the tone of what you’re conveying, and the knowledge and experience your character has.

Voice: 3rd Person or 1st Person (Or Does It Really Matter)?

Answer: It doesn’t. Don’t worry about this.

Yes, many YA novels tend to be written in 1st person, and many MG novels tend to be written in 3rd person. Such is the nature of the beast. MG readers like to imagine a story unfolding before them, viewing a character’s adventures, hence the 3rd person trend. “She ran there, she did this.” The MG reader says, “She did? What happened next?” YA readers like to experience the story, connect with the main character in a very personal way, be the main character. Hence the 1st person trend. “I think this, I feel this.” The YA reader says, “Yes, I think and feel that too. How would it feel if I were in this situation? What would I do next?”

But this doesn’t mean you can’t write a MG novel in 1st person or a YA novel in 3rd person. The most important thing to consider is what is true for your story and your character’s voice. For example, my second MG book, The Year of Shadows, is told in 1st person from the POV of the main character, Olivia. Most of the time, my instinct is to write in 3rd person, but for this story, Olivia’s voice came to me in 1st person. I hesitated, thinking, “But aren’t most MG novels written in 3rd person?” In the end, however, I knew that 1st person was the most honest, most authentic voice for this particular character, this particular book. And that is the most important thing.

Know your character. Know your voice. Don’t worry about the rest.

Editor’s note: Much of the old conferences’ material has sadly faded from the internet, so we’re bringing back the greatest hits! This post (originally from AUGUST 15, 2012) is one in a series of best events from previous years. Enjoy!