A scene comprised of seventeen adults, ranging in ages from 21-70,
all dressed in wizard robes and playing a game of Quidditch in a field
behind a retirement community is probably something you’d only see in a
movie. For me, it was just another Harry Potter Party. Who hasn’t
heard of the story about an orphan boy who discovers he is belongs to a
secret society of wizards? Who hasn’t noticed the earnings made in the
movie rights alone—or the theme park called Wizard World? If you haven’t, chances are you’ve been hiding under a rock. The Harry Potter books have surpassed the expectations of any MG reader. So how old is too old for middle-grade?
MG—or middle-grade books, may seem like they are written solely for kids the age of 9-12 but reality tells a different story. The party I described started out with adults–only adults, that were reading the Harry Potter books. We read them because there was something in there that grabbed at our heart strings and made us feel younger. More and more I see adults favoring MG books over the books geared toward them as adults. Why you might ask? There are several reasons why readers choose MG.
The first reason is because the books are geared toward children,
they are clean books. They are removed from sexual content, vulgar
language, and graphic violence. In a world that is at the brink of
everything rated R, MG offers content that is worry free. It allows us
to escape in a book and not have to worry about what we might find.Another reason is that these books help us to relate with our younger selves. Who says your inner teen isn’t still around? The reason I write MG is because these are the books I would have read when I was a kid. I also refer to MG books as “tween” books. Tween books are bridges to help teens cross over to adult. To help them find their way out of the in-be-tween. These books help tweens embrace themselves and help them find their identity in a world full of loud voices. I am proud to be a part of such a wonderful genre a books.
To answer the question above, you are never too old to read MG. Like those happy, Quidditch playing adults, they fell in love with a MG book and embraced the magic found within its pages.
