Ask Afoma: The almost-10-year-old who's venturing into YA romances
+ A guide to understanding the current YA landscape
Since the dawn of time, kids have always wanted one thing: To grow up. I remember being nine and wishing I could fast-forward time so that I could use make-up and put on nail polish, and eventually, as a young teen, wishing I could be old enough to be allowed to date. Now, as an adult, I wish I’d let myself just be a kid for longer. If everything goes well, most children will have many years of adulthood ahead of them.
Still, as someone who recommends children’s books to educators and parents, I can’t help but notice that kids are reading up more than ever before. When I go back to update my older lists, I realize that based on feedback from my audience, most of the books I recommended for third graders two years ago are now too “babyish” for most 8 and 9-year-olds. Now, nearly every 11 or 12-year-old is inching into reading young adult novels.
There are several reasons why this is happening.
First, the world is changing. Kids are growing up faster. The internet is in full swing, and many kids need books to catch up to what they’re experiencing in their social circles. For example, just a decade ago, romance and cellphone usage were predominantly featured in teen literature (or upper middle grade fiction), not middle grade.
Also, as many educators have shared with me, peer recommendations are a big deal, and all it takes is one member of a friend group to get a group of 12-year-olds interested in Colleen Hoover or Fourth Wing (which, in case you were wondering, are not for kids or young teen audiences).
Finally, publishing has a major gap for kids in the in-between ages of 11 and 14, who aren’t quite “children” anymore, but aren’t the “teenagers” served by most young adult fiction. So they’ve outgrown most middle grade books, but aren’t mature enough for the gritty content in a lot of teen fiction.
Today’s submission is from a precocious, almost-10-year-old who is developing an affection for young adult fiction. Here’s what her mom sent via my Book Matchmaking form:
I need a book for my almost-10-year-old daughter. She has recently enjoyed Beach Cute by Beth Reekles, Take It from the Top by Claire Swinarski, I Funny by Chris Grabenstein, and James Patterson. She loved Beach Cute so much that she’s planning on reading the other books by Beth Reekles. She’s starting to venture into some YA. She likes a bit of drama. Her other hobbies are shopping and theater.
I love receiving submissions from parents whose children love to read, and I’m glad that this reader is enjoying a diverse range of books. However, as I did for the mom who sent this in, I must flag the YA content in this case. Here’s why: All YA is not the same.
When you look up young adult titles, you’ll see that some are rated 12+ while others are 14+ or even 16+. You can check these details on the publisher’s website, but Amazon can be helpful, too (although it often aggregates based on customer feedback, not the publisher’s ratings, which can be iffy and highly subjective).
In my age ratings, I always write the age of the youngest reader I’d recommend a book to. However, this doesn’t mean that all readers of that age can or should read that book. Grown-ups, you know your kid reader best.
Here’s how I think through these ratings:
Rated 12 and up: Books for readers aged 12 and above are the most conservative, featuring little to no language and no sexual content beyond a brief kiss and handholding. Some of them may feature violent scenes, such as the Hunger Games books. These days, though, this rating is changing,1 and I continue to observe and adjust accordingly.
Rated 13 and up: Books rated 13+ tend to have more frequent use of strong language and slightly more mature sexual content, such as sexual innuendos in conversation, more frequent kissing scenes (typically more than two or three), and more overt pining that feels more appropriate for slightly older readers.
Rated 14 and up: Anything for ages 14+ is firmly high school territory, with often gratuitous use of profanity, references to sex, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, or other content that feels (to me) too mature for middle schoolers. Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that young adult fiction NEVER has open-door scenes, so even in teen books where the characters have sex (yes, this happens sometimes), it is always closed-door.
According to the publisher, the Beth Reekles book is rated 14+, and I trust that rating. I haven’t read any of her books, but I did watch parts of The Kissing Booth movie (based on the book by Reekles), and it felt wayyyy older than other teen movies I like, such as The Fault in Our Stars, for example. I read 14+ YA occasionally and have found some fantastic books in that category. I think those books are exactly what many older teens in that age group need and enjoy2. However, books at that level feel like a jump for a not-quite-10-year-old.
As a fellow precocious reader (I read my dad’s The Godfather series in middle school—yikes!), I love to encourage parents to find age-appropriate books for kids so they don’t grow up too fast!
Of course, every parent and child is different, and choosing what your kids read is a completely personal decision. However, I know that many parents have no idea what’s out there in terms of age-appropriate literature and simply want their voracious readers to continue reading whatever is available.
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I was delighted to receive this request and had fun recommending some seriously swoony (and completely tame) romance options3 for this soon-to-be 10-year-old, as well as other stories about friendship drama and theater that align with her interests.
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