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Bella Blasi (BLAZE-EE)'s avatar

With advancing technology, it's easy for middle-graders to get distracted like the rest of us.

They have television, video games, even social media accounts at such young ages. Reading isn't the only form of entertainment to by-pass time anymore.

I also absolutely agree about the graphic novels; more need to be created. Middle graders tend to love visual stories more than chapter books, at least, in my experience. They also help people with reading disabilities and are a great way to learn another language (I had a friend who's first language wasn't English and we'd read graphic novels together; it was fun and helped her understand the story more vs if it had been a chapter book).

There does need to be an "upper middle grade" category. Some MGs are sitting on the boundary between YA and MG because they're not quite either, and some MGs are accused of being YA when really they should be "upper middle grade".

Thank you for this!

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Melissa-Jane Fogarty (Nguyen)'s avatar

This was all so interesting to read. In Australia, the majority of MG books start out in paperback. Of course there are exceptions and then special editions sometimes come later, but it definitely helps make MG books more accessible in terms of price points from release. We also have upper middle grade – perhaps not an official category but one many in the industry use to differentiate between what’s actually quite a wide age range, and especially one that covers a group experiencing a huge amount of growth and change.

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