Do you read stories geared toward younger readers?

[Calliopeace]

I'm going to assume most of the people on here are not in middle school and ask about your reading preferences. I'm curious if you enjoy reading middle grade books, mostly, but also any book that isn't targeted toward your age group. I read tons of YA and some adult, but I also love a good middle grade book.

Personally, middle grade feels refreshing to me because as soon as I pick up an adult or YA novel I know there's a 99% chance there's going to be romance. If middle grade does deal with romance, there aren't any stakes to it. I also think YA tends to be over dramatized, to the point where I'm asking myself if they even care about the super evil person trying to take over the world.

That said, I do think there's a difference between middle grade that centers on younger characters and a book that talks down to younger readers (which I don't think is exactly the right wording but the best way I can describe it).

Let me know your thoughts! And also if you have any good recs :)

 

[HungrySheep]

I've been reading Japanese picture books to help me study and improve my foundational vocabulary. I got impatient waiting for the official translation of The Moon On a Rainy Night so I started learning Japanese to read the raws. The scanlators were 10x faster.

 

[LilRora]

For me, I sometimes read YA books or even midde grade, but I'm often turned off because they often dance around certain subjects or simplify things too much. That's part of the reason why I liked Game of Thrones or The Witcher or a couple of other books when I read them long ago, those were the first few stories I read that said a lot of things straight without sugarcoating or avoiding them.

Sex is the obvious thing here, but there's a lot of other things that YA books often don't have, such as realistic gore, realistic depictions of things like abuse or torture or struggle. And granted those are not things I expect an average young adult to enjoy, but it annoys me when the author keeps skirting around that edge where they write about something, but don't really write about it, if that makes sense. I remember reading a fifteen volumes long YA story that did not have anything closer to talking about sex than characters having relationships, and at some point it just started grating at my nerves.

The way I see it, a lot of YA books just don't deal with a lot of shit and fill that hole by overly focusing on other things that appeal to the readers of that age more. And the issue is, once someone starts looking past that, they seem too simple and too black-and-white, and lose all appeal. Some people might like them still, but then they like them for that simplicity, not despite of it (this is a bit too complex a topic to explain here, but this is how I see the thing).

One really good YA book I know is called Eragon, by Christopher Paolini (technically that's the name of the first volume, forgot how the whole thing was called), though I read it paperback and I've honestly no idea if it's available on the internet in some way.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Somewhere between adult and YA. Stuff that isn't edgelord grimdark but also isn't power of love and friendship magic levels of naive.

And picture books. I grew up on satire picture collections and stuff. Especially the really dumb stuff even kids get, like a man putting a cat on a fan and calling it cat-apult or something...

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Animorphs has war crimes.

 

[Succubiome]

I've been reading Japanese picture books to help me study and improve my foundational vocabulary.

...this is a smart way to learn written Japanese, I'll have to try that out.

 

[Kenjona]

It depends on is it in my interest zone? And is it interesting to read, otherwise I do not really GAF if its YA/Adult/Middle school aged. Pictures are always cool, even if the ones in my head are better, I like looking at art.

 

[K5Rakitan]

I recommend this one:

My kid likes this one a lot:

We both like this one:

The Story Of The Wright Brothers book by Michelle Prater Burke

 

[Daitengu]

I'm middle aged. Most of the novels here on SH I would consider Young Adult.

Hell, I consider any novel with a two bit MC YA. Even most WH40k novels.

It's not bad, but it's simple.

 

[HelloHound]

books is books

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

books is books

Couldn't agree more. Took the words out of my face.

 

[Calliopeace]

For me, I sometimes read YA books or even midde grade, but I'm often turned off because they often dance around certain subjects or simplify things too much. That's part of the reason why I liked Game of Thrones or The Witcher or a couple of other books when I read them long ago, those were the first few stories I read that said a lot of things straight without sugarcoating or avoiding them.

Sex is the obvious thing here, but there's a lot of other things that YA books often don't have, such as realistic gore, realistic depictions of things like abuse or torture or struggle. And granted those are not things I expect an average young adult to enjoy, but it annoys me when the author keeps skirting around that edge where they write about something, but don't really write about it, if that makes sense. I remember reading a fifteen volumes long YA story that did not have anything closer to talking about sex than characters having relationships, and at some point it just started grating at my nerves.

I feel like that's why I like middle grade a lot because I don't usually want to read about the gore and sex lol.

The way I see it, a lot of YA books just don't deal with a lot of shit and fill that hole by overly focusing on other things that appeal to the readers of that age more. And the issue is, once someone starts looking past that, they seem too simple and too black-and-white, and lose all appeal. Some people might like them still, but then they like them for that simplicity, not despite of it (this is a bit too complex a topic to explain here, but this is how I see the thing).

I think there's just so much YA that a lot of it is inevitably subpar. This could just be because I read more YA, but I feel like a higher percentage of middle grade is really good.

One really good YA book I know is called Eragon, by Christopher Paolini (technically that's the name of the first volume, forgot how the whole thing was called), though I read it paperback and I've honestly no idea if it's available on the internet in some way.

I remember reading that in like fifth grade! The cool thing is my teacher told me Christopher Paolini was a teenager when he wrote so of course eleven year old me was like, I'm gonna publish something before I'm a teenager

 

[Tempokai]

Isn't everything geared for young audiences nowadays? YA is literally a standard, and when reading content for more younger audiences, I cringe

 

[StarrGaze]

Children's books for the nostalgia

 

[prognastat]

For reading actual fully text books I tend to not go below YA as the youngest target audience. However if you go to manga I've read plenty of shonen series which is primarily geared towards early teen boys. Same goes for comics where I have less of an issue about reading something meant for younger ages.

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

Nope, I'm an edgelord.
I've always been drawn to dark, gritty, and grim stories with characters who suffer and bleed.
I want gore, I want splatter, I want horror and I want sex.
I avoid children's stories like the plague, and when it comes to teen stories or YA, I turn to those of Eastern production because most Western ones are too sugarcoated.
But I'm not a parent; perhaps when I become one, children's stories will start to make sense to me.

 

[Corty]

I honestly don't know. I don't even know if my writing is geared toward younger people or not. Well, not my most recent one, that is for adults for sure, but still. I can only tell if a show is aimed at kids when it's childish, but I can't tell otherwise.

Maybe I have a child-at-heart perk.

 

[Azure_Fog]

The only thing I know about reading levels are I-Ready scores…

 

[QuercusMalus]

Hell yes. The library in town is right next to a park, so they have signboard set up every 20 or so feet on both sides of the walkway where local writers will have their illustrated childrens books displayed one page per signboard, so you can read it as you walk.

In general, I will read most books, or at least skim to see if I want to sit down with it.

 

[Aader]

I enjoyed the Artemis Fowl novels, which got me into the Sword of Shanara, with branched into the Companions of the Hall and Wheel of Time series... what was the question?