Why
Adults Should Read Middle Grade Novels,
by Tara Gilboy
I don’t
read adult books.
Most
people give me strange looks when I say this. I’m an author, after all. And a grown
up. Why wouldn’t I want to read
adult books?
I think
my friends and family assume it’s a phase. They are always trying to give me
books after they’ve finished them. This
one will convince you to read adult books again. Nope.
Now
don’t get me wrong: there are many adult books I like. I have a few favorites,
and from time to time, I will reread them. I love Jane Austen, Stephen King,
and Amy Tan. Elizabeth Kostova’s The
Historian is a favorite, as is Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. It’s not that I think there is
anything wrong with adult books. It’s just that I like middle grade books
better.
As I sat
down to write this blog post, I realized I’d never really considered closely
why I prefer middle grade over adult novels. Whenever anyone asked me, I’d
always given the easy answer: “well, it’s because I write them.” (Which seems
like the very responsible, professional, “adult” answer.) Or even worse: “ I
don’t know. I just like them better.”
But
middle grade books are important. For children, yes. But for adults too.
There’s
been a lot of crossover in the young adult genre in recent years. Adult readers
devour YA books like The Hunger Games,
but the same sort of crossover is not seen as often in middle grade. Grown-ups
who wouldn’t think twice about purchasing books like Divergent or Children of
Blood and Bone are less eager to pick up books like Holes and Ella Enchanted.
I think
there is a myth that because middle grade is shorter and written for younger
readers, it must be simple or unsophisticated, but nothing could be further
from the truth. Rather than making it simple, middle grade’s brevity simply
means it is concise, distilled down to its most essential elements with
everything extraneous stripped away. Most middle grade books are short enough
to be read in one sitting, allowing you to hold the entire story in your mind
in a single afternoon.
Middle
grade is unpretentious, but not unsophisticated. This is its charm.
Middle
grade is all about storytelling. Writing middle grade forces the author to
disappear, to remove his or her ego from the writing. Readers don’t want
paragraph after paragraph of all the wonderful historical research you did.
They don’t care if you can write fancy poetic sentences that are grammatically
correct even at a mile long. They don’t want pages of beautifully written
exposition. There is a reason that middle grade books are so beloved, the books
that often turn many children into lifelong readers. It’s called the “golden
age of reading” for a reason. Middle grade draws on traditional storytelling
forms. Heroes and quests. Magic. Evil villains.
They can
be highly literary but in a way in which the language does not draw attention
to itself.
Middle
grade readers are old enough to be able to explore complicated and difficult
issues but are still young enough and unjaded enough that they do so in a
hopeful way. Middle grade answers universal questions like: “Who am I?” “What
is my place in the world?” It explores questions like friendship and where we
fit within our family structure. (And if exploring these themes were unique to
middle grade readers, a lot fewer people would be in therapy.)
Middle
grade is pure story, unobstructed by ego or long asides. The focus is on plot
and character.
There
are few characters more complex than Cecile in Rita Williams Garcia’s One Crazy Summer, a flawed character and
negligent mother, but one whose motivations we understand entirely.
Or Anna,
in Sarah, Plain and Tall, who sums up
her complicated feelings about her younger brother with the simple words “Mama died the next morning. That was the worst
thing about Caleb.”
I often
think children have much more sense than adults, who come with so much baggage.
They cut right to the heart of the matter.
My
favorite thing about middle grade, though, is the point of view. I often grow
frustrated with adult books. Adults are often jaded. Pessimistic. Disillusioned.
One of the reasons I feel so good after I finish a middle grade novel is
because I have spent a significant amount of time in the mind of a child
narrator. Middle grade narrators are hopeful. They are curious. They care
passionately about things. Their characters are not settled—they are still
finding their own identities. They are curious and have an infinite capacity
for wonder. To spend an afternoon lost in a middle grade novel is an afternoon
spent reconnecting to these qualities within ourselves. These characters are
not distracted, like adult narrators, by work, romance, sex, and the dull minutiae
of life. There are parts of ourselves we lose as adults – hope, wonder,
creativity, playfulness, even the importance of friendship – and middle grade
novels present an opportunity for us to reconnect with these parts of our
childhood selves and reexamine our own identities.
When we
are the age of middle grade readers, anything is possible, the future unknown.
We don’t know what profession we will have, who we will marry, or where we will
live. That part is still unwritten.
Let us all be open to the adventure.
Middle Grade author Tara Gilboy holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, where she specialized in writing for children and young adults. She teaches creative writing in San Diego Community College's Continuing Education Program and for the PEN Writers in Prisons Program.
*You can order signed copies through Mysterious Galaxy: https://www.mystgalaxy.
Otherwise, it's also available at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/
and Barnes and Noble: https://www.
No comments:
Post a Comment