As a middle school librarian and a parent of an upper ES student who reads a few years above her age level, I found your survey results thought-provoking. In my school, Novels in Verse are super popular. It is by far the most requested reading type I get asked to provide a reader's advisory for. Once my students read it, they want more! As for getting new books into the hands of my students, my budget is such that I usually need to wait until a book is released in paperback to stretch my dollars, and there is a litany of reviews I can use to justify my purchase to my administrators, as all new books have to go through an approval process. So students don't often get the 'new' stand-alone books for a couple of years. The exception I make for purchasing a hardcover volume is usually tried-and-true series I know my students will read or titles that were specifically requested, e.g., Wings of Fire, Spy Guy, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, etc. My library is genred, and Romance circulates extremely well. This year I had a large group of 8th-grade boys who focused their reading in that area. It started as a dare between a couple of boys and quietly grew from there. I completely agree with your previous post about a dearth of new literature with middle-grade male protagonists. With most teachers recommending Hatchet. It is a good one, but there is a definite hole in the publishing world for this portion of the population.
Hi Randi! Thanks so much for sharing! I love knowing that there is a whole other set of readers enjoying these genres. I would love to get them in on the survey if their parents will permit. I think many kids would love novel in verse if they actually got past the “it’s poetry” hump and I absolutely occasionally get romance requests from parents of boys, but it’s a rarity for me! Your decision to wait until paperback and verified faves is wise and certainly explains the lag in new releases reaching kids, but you’re already doing everything you can with limited resources. Truly appreciate you chiming in here!
Listen to what kids like. Applicable to so many things in their life that would make things better for everyone if you simply respected their choices. Great essay!
“Most US schools start ramping up poetry analysis around fourth grade, which is exactly when the kid data starts showing the rise in poetry rejection.”
As a poet, this makes me so sad. I didn’t get obsessed with poetry in the classroom. My mom started me out on Stevenson and Milne and other children’s poetry, and my friends and I memorized a lot of jump rope rhymes and other songs because we got an hour for recess back in the 90s. As I got older, I started reading poetry books that we had at home. Hopkins, Keats, etc.
Kids should hear poetry in the classroom, but there’s no need to analyze it. It’s supposed to be fun.
As a parent and educator of middle grade readers this put everything I was feeling into one piece. I'm a data girlie, so I particularly enjoyed all of your mini survey findings. My elementary child recently joined a kid book club and proclaimed herself a "fantasy reader" and she thrived in leading a discussion about the construction of the book itself. I was floored. Like your findings, I think we need to give kids more credit for their critical thinking skills (past just like and dislike) and a space to voice their opinions in regards to any art form, especially books.
This was FASCINATING, and I loved it (and immediately shared it with my husband, who teaches 6th grade) because it totally resonates with what I've seen as a librarian for grades 3-5, and with our own kid. My husband and I keep hearing that our readers want more complexity, and they want to read the big YA books, but most of the time those big YA books are too "sexy" for them. Clearly kids are hungry for books between MG and YA, so why hasn't publishing caught up yet? Looking forward to reading more of your analysis.
Ahhh! I’m glad it resonates with you as an educator! I think publishing is catching up, but things move slowly so we’ll hopefully see a boom in the next couple of years.
This was such a well written commentary. I thoroughly enjoyed your insights and look forward to applying them to my children. Many of the new books we've read and definitely because you have recommended them.
Love these insights! I think there’s a tendency to try and get kids to expand their reading palette but to me, if they’re reading, that’s a win. Let them fall in love with reading by picking topics they’re drawn to.
I was so surprised to see that historical fiction was not among the least liked genres! Aside from Alan Gratz's novels, HF is rarely checked out in my junior high library. However, there's been an uptick in requests for war stories and survival stories towards the end of this school year, so maybe student interests are shifting? With the remake of Wuthering Heights and other classics, lots of students have been requesting classic novels, too.
I was shocked by this too! So many kids selected HF as a favorite genre. It could also mean that they’re reading a ton of Alan Gratz, too. I only remember him and Nielsen and the new Swinarski book as the mentioned HF favorites!
Did you define “historical fiction?” I find that many people do not understand that “historical fiction” is set 50+ years before it is written. Many think that anything that isn't contemporary is historical, regardless of when it was written. They may be referring to older works. The fact that you found that they are reading “backlist favorites” suggests that might be the case.
Not sure I agree entirely with that definition lol. Even a book set in 1990 is historical fiction at this point, but yes, many of these kids know historical fiction. I just checked and two kids also added The Lions' Run (set in 1940s Germany as a favorite). They just don't like ALL HF but if it's action-packed and engaging, they love it.
Look it up. It's not really a matter of agreeing. It is a matter of what the term actually means. No, a realistic work written in 1990 and set in 1990 is and always will be contemporary realistic fiction. The difference is in the author's perspective.
Which is why libraries don’t shelve fiction by genre. Nearly all books fit into more than one genre. Those kids may love “historical fiction.” They may love “action/adventure.” They may love “WWII fiction.” It’s much better to use spine labels to represent the different genres that apply to a book. Not too many, of course! Back in the day, my elementary school librarian used colored dots and you can bet that we memorized the colors of the genres we loved. I remember that red was mystery and blue was historical fiction.
If a book was written in 1990 and most events took place during that time period, it would be an older contemporary fiction book, not historical. I’ve seen publishers describe books set in the 1980s and 1990s as historical when recently published. This is only my opinion, but I don’t think the 50 year rule/guideline will stand up over time as technology changes our lives at a surprisingly fast rate, even 25 years ago was so drastically different from now. Generally speaking authors would still need to fact check their history, even if they were alive at the time because memory is imperfect. The kids might not know the rules perfectly, but there are some big names in historical fiction and my kids have enjoyed several historical fiction books (and been bored to tears with others), so it makes sense to me that it’s a favorite.
As I said in another comment, I tend to define it as anything set in a time that is before the author's memory, but the Historical Novel Society disagrees. Others say 25 years. The important point is that it is set in a time period significantly earlier than when it was written, so that the author is looking back.
First, it isn't about how much has changed as about whether the author has personal experience or is relying on the historical record. And, yes, memory is faulty and should be double checked, but that's different from not having any memory to check. And the farther back you go, the scarcer that record is.
Second, change does not only refer to technology. Technology is the easy part. It primarily refers to changes in society and culture.
Third, it is primarily an issue of faulty interpretation of history. The Historians' Fallacy is assuming that those in the past had the same knowledge and perspective that we do today. It's interpreting by hindsight. Presentism is related to it. That is, judging the past in light of present-day values and attitudes on the past. I see a lot of this.
Other historians' fallacies go both ways. Anachronisms include anything in the wrong time -- either including things/attitudes/customs that were already obsolete or things/etc. from the future. Again, I see a lot of this.
I think "historical" also depends on students' perception of time. All of my students were born over a decade after 9/11, so they view 9/11 as a historical event. I put 9/11 books in historical fiction. For kids born in the 2030s, the Covid pandamic may feel historical, too :)
The definition is of the book and the author, not the reader. Is the author writing primarily from personal experience or is the author using historical materials? How does this affect the author's perspective of people and events? What difference does it make when the author knows what the future is? What kinds of errors and inaccuracies might the work include because the author doesn't have personal experience of the time period?
We all view 9/11 as an historical event. It is. So is the pandemic. Fiction written about either one is not considered historical fiction, although I would probably stretch the point of the author were 25 years old. I personally think that historical fiction is anything written before the author's memory, but that's not the Historical Fiction Society's definition.
This was so interesting on many levels! Something that stood out to me was how polarizing horror is. It seems like MG horror is being bought and published a lot right now. I also thought the romance thing was interesting, too. My daughter is 10, just finishing 4th grade, and she falls in the firm "no romance" camp (at least among humans...I understand there's some romance or at least flirtation in Wings of Fire, which she loves!). The MG contemporary I'm working on now has a light romance arc that's more of a mutual crush than anything. While I've been writing it, I've tapped into those 12-year-old feelings. But yeah, when I was 10, I wasn't interested in that at all! So if 10 year olds are the ones reading it . . . sigh.
I also think it was so interesting and eye opening that backlist titles and especially series are still dominant. And you touched on this, but you really cannot underestimate kid word of mouth! Wings of Fire is the first series my daughter has been super into (on her own, without reading them together) and she has actively gotten her entire friend group to read them just so she can have people to talk to about them! Thinking about series, too, is interesting as an aspiring MG author. It's worth thinking about whether the stand-alone books I've written or am writing can actually be series...
You’re right about horror! I was shocked by how many kids said they didn’t want to read scary stuff because of the volume of horror being created. I think the kids who love horror LOVE it and can’t get enough so that’s the thing. Those who hate it can’t stand it. Kids are truly fascinating and like adults they have varied reading tastes. It’s just time to hear more from them not just adults.
This was so interesting! My 9 yo has loved Wings of Fire and Percy Jackson series in recent months, he got them from his classroom at school. He has loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid and I Survived for the last couple years too.
He reads standalone books occasionally but is truly drawn into series. He currently has no interest in romance but a bit of discussion of crushes doesn’t bother him. He asked me about reading The Hunger Games series for the first time because I was rereading them this winter but hasn’t brought it up again lately. I am going to ask him to do the survey of reading, I am happy to see he reads on a daily basis. The Battle of the Books list is prompting him to read more standalone books this summer so he can be on his school’s team.
Very grateful for initiatives like BOB. I had several applicants who’ve done it for their schools and they were some of the strongest writers and readers. Series definitely have a stronghold especially with elementary readers!!
Thank you so much for sharing these insights and reviews, Afoma! I started writing middle grade and find that I still have so much to learn as I’ve seen the same reading patterns in my daughter as she is in her early teens. It’s something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but what you shared here 100% matches up with what I’ve been seeing and how I will be approaching my writing differently moving forward!
This is incredibly comprehensive. Thank you, Afoma. I had already scheduled a revamped post on my blog (first written in 2019) called In "Celebration of the Verse" novel, but after reading this had to amend it. THANK YOU for showing the way we present poetry to kids matters. In our informing we are helping to form life-long opinions.
I'd love your thoughts if you're interested. It's scheduled to run June 9.
This was so insightful! Not surprised at all at the discernment of middle grade readers, and love that you gave them a way to share their thoughts and opinions! And super interesting that the most common books mentioned were backlist titles. It would be cool with the rise of Booktok to see more people getting as excited about new middle grade books as YA/NA and reaching that MG audience. But it also would be nice to find a way for the “gatekeepers” to explore more new titles. I remember as a kid riding my bike to the library weekly and browsing shelves. I found so many new and interesting books that way! Anyway, this was a really amazing read!
As a middle school librarian and a parent of an upper ES student who reads a few years above her age level, I found your survey results thought-provoking. In my school, Novels in Verse are super popular. It is by far the most requested reading type I get asked to provide a reader's advisory for. Once my students read it, they want more! As for getting new books into the hands of my students, my budget is such that I usually need to wait until a book is released in paperback to stretch my dollars, and there is a litany of reviews I can use to justify my purchase to my administrators, as all new books have to go through an approval process. So students don't often get the 'new' stand-alone books for a couple of years. The exception I make for purchasing a hardcover volume is usually tried-and-true series I know my students will read or titles that were specifically requested, e.g., Wings of Fire, Spy Guy, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, etc. My library is genred, and Romance circulates extremely well. This year I had a large group of 8th-grade boys who focused their reading in that area. It started as a dare between a couple of boys and quietly grew from there. I completely agree with your previous post about a dearth of new literature with middle-grade male protagonists. With most teachers recommending Hatchet. It is a good one, but there is a definite hole in the publishing world for this portion of the population.
Hi Randi! Thanks so much for sharing! I love knowing that there is a whole other set of readers enjoying these genres. I would love to get them in on the survey if their parents will permit. I think many kids would love novel in verse if they actually got past the “it’s poetry” hump and I absolutely occasionally get romance requests from parents of boys, but it’s a rarity for me! Your decision to wait until paperback and verified faves is wise and certainly explains the lag in new releases reaching kids, but you’re already doing everything you can with limited resources. Truly appreciate you chiming in here!
Wow thanks for sharing the boys reading romance story!
Listen to what kids like. Applicable to so many things in their life that would make things better for everyone if you simply respected their choices. Great essay!
100% Thanks for reading.
“Most US schools start ramping up poetry analysis around fourth grade, which is exactly when the kid data starts showing the rise in poetry rejection.”
As a poet, this makes me so sad. I didn’t get obsessed with poetry in the classroom. My mom started me out on Stevenson and Milne and other children’s poetry, and my friends and I memorized a lot of jump rope rhymes and other songs because we got an hour for recess back in the 90s. As I got older, I started reading poetry books that we had at home. Hopkins, Keats, etc.
Kids should hear poetry in the classroom, but there’s no need to analyze it. It’s supposed to be fun.
I know a few parents who are doing that for their kids right now so I really hope it continues!
As a parent and educator of middle grade readers this put everything I was feeling into one piece. I'm a data girlie, so I particularly enjoyed all of your mini survey findings. My elementary child recently joined a kid book club and proclaimed herself a "fantasy reader" and she thrived in leading a discussion about the construction of the book itself. I was floored. Like your findings, I think we need to give kids more credit for their critical thinking skills (past just like and dislike) and a space to voice their opinions in regards to any art form, especially books.
absolutely!! I love seeing kids find their identity as a reader!
This was FASCINATING, and I loved it (and immediately shared it with my husband, who teaches 6th grade) because it totally resonates with what I've seen as a librarian for grades 3-5, and with our own kid. My husband and I keep hearing that our readers want more complexity, and they want to read the big YA books, but most of the time those big YA books are too "sexy" for them. Clearly kids are hungry for books between MG and YA, so why hasn't publishing caught up yet? Looking forward to reading more of your analysis.
Ahhh! I’m glad it resonates with you as an educator! I think publishing is catching up, but things move slowly so we’ll hopefully see a boom in the next couple of years.
This was such a well written commentary. I thoroughly enjoyed your insights and look forward to applying them to my children. Many of the new books we've read and definitely because you have recommended them.
Thank you, Renee. I'm glad to hear that :)
Brilliant research with such great insight!
Thanks, Brittany!
Love these insights! I think there’s a tendency to try and get kids to expand their reading palette but to me, if they’re reading, that’s a win. Let them fall in love with reading by picking topics they’re drawn to.
Yes, sometimes we have to let them lead.
I was so surprised to see that historical fiction was not among the least liked genres! Aside from Alan Gratz's novels, HF is rarely checked out in my junior high library. However, there's been an uptick in requests for war stories and survival stories towards the end of this school year, so maybe student interests are shifting? With the remake of Wuthering Heights and other classics, lots of students have been requesting classic novels, too.
I was shocked by this too! So many kids selected HF as a favorite genre. It could also mean that they’re reading a ton of Alan Gratz, too. I only remember him and Nielsen and the new Swinarski book as the mentioned HF favorites!
Did you define “historical fiction?” I find that many people do not understand that “historical fiction” is set 50+ years before it is written. Many think that anything that isn't contemporary is historical, regardless of when it was written. They may be referring to older works. The fact that you found that they are reading “backlist favorites” suggests that might be the case.
Not sure I agree entirely with that definition lol. Even a book set in 1990 is historical fiction at this point, but yes, many of these kids know historical fiction. I just checked and two kids also added The Lions' Run (set in 1940s Germany as a favorite). They just don't like ALL HF but if it's action-packed and engaging, they love it.
Look it up. It's not really a matter of agreeing. It is a matter of what the term actually means. No, a realistic work written in 1990 and set in 1990 is and always will be contemporary realistic fiction. The difference is in the author's perspective.
Well, that means the kids really do love historical fiction since all their faves are WWII fiction :)
Which is why libraries don’t shelve fiction by genre. Nearly all books fit into more than one genre. Those kids may love “historical fiction.” They may love “action/adventure.” They may love “WWII fiction.” It’s much better to use spine labels to represent the different genres that apply to a book. Not too many, of course! Back in the day, my elementary school librarian used colored dots and you can bet that we memorized the colors of the genres we loved. I remember that red was mystery and blue was historical fiction.
If a book was written in 1990 and most events took place during that time period, it would be an older contemporary fiction book, not historical. I’ve seen publishers describe books set in the 1980s and 1990s as historical when recently published. This is only my opinion, but I don’t think the 50 year rule/guideline will stand up over time as technology changes our lives at a surprisingly fast rate, even 25 years ago was so drastically different from now. Generally speaking authors would still need to fact check their history, even if they were alive at the time because memory is imperfect. The kids might not know the rules perfectly, but there are some big names in historical fiction and my kids have enjoyed several historical fiction books (and been bored to tears with others), so it makes sense to me that it’s a favorite.
As I said in another comment, I tend to define it as anything set in a time that is before the author's memory, but the Historical Novel Society disagrees. Others say 25 years. The important point is that it is set in a time period significantly earlier than when it was written, so that the author is looking back.
First, it isn't about how much has changed as about whether the author has personal experience or is relying on the historical record. And, yes, memory is faulty and should be double checked, but that's different from not having any memory to check. And the farther back you go, the scarcer that record is.
Second, change does not only refer to technology. Technology is the easy part. It primarily refers to changes in society and culture.
Third, it is primarily an issue of faulty interpretation of history. The Historians' Fallacy is assuming that those in the past had the same knowledge and perspective that we do today. It's interpreting by hindsight. Presentism is related to it. That is, judging the past in light of present-day values and attitudes on the past. I see a lot of this.
Other historians' fallacies go both ways. Anachronisms include anything in the wrong time -- either including things/attitudes/customs that were already obsolete or things/etc. from the future. Again, I see a lot of this.
I think "historical" also depends on students' perception of time. All of my students were born over a decade after 9/11, so they view 9/11 as a historical event. I put 9/11 books in historical fiction. For kids born in the 2030s, the Covid pandamic may feel historical, too :)
The definition is of the book and the author, not the reader. Is the author writing primarily from personal experience or is the author using historical materials? How does this affect the author's perspective of people and events? What difference does it make when the author knows what the future is? What kinds of errors and inaccuracies might the work include because the author doesn't have personal experience of the time period?
We all view 9/11 as an historical event. It is. So is the pandemic. Fiction written about either one is not considered historical fiction, although I would probably stretch the point of the author were 25 years old. I personally think that historical fiction is anything written before the author's memory, but that's not the Historical Fiction Society's definition.
Wow this was fascinating all the way through. Thank you! I love hearing from kids directly...they are so smart.
I agree! Thanks for reading :)
This was so interesting on many levels! Something that stood out to me was how polarizing horror is. It seems like MG horror is being bought and published a lot right now. I also thought the romance thing was interesting, too. My daughter is 10, just finishing 4th grade, and she falls in the firm "no romance" camp (at least among humans...I understand there's some romance or at least flirtation in Wings of Fire, which she loves!). The MG contemporary I'm working on now has a light romance arc that's more of a mutual crush than anything. While I've been writing it, I've tapped into those 12-year-old feelings. But yeah, when I was 10, I wasn't interested in that at all! So if 10 year olds are the ones reading it . . . sigh.
I also think it was so interesting and eye opening that backlist titles and especially series are still dominant. And you touched on this, but you really cannot underestimate kid word of mouth! Wings of Fire is the first series my daughter has been super into (on her own, without reading them together) and she has actively gotten her entire friend group to read them just so she can have people to talk to about them! Thinking about series, too, is interesting as an aspiring MG author. It's worth thinking about whether the stand-alone books I've written or am writing can actually be series...
You’re right about horror! I was shocked by how many kids said they didn’t want to read scary stuff because of the volume of horror being created. I think the kids who love horror LOVE it and can’t get enough so that’s the thing. Those who hate it can’t stand it. Kids are truly fascinating and like adults they have varied reading tastes. It’s just time to hear more from them not just adults.
This was so interesting! My 9 yo has loved Wings of Fire and Percy Jackson series in recent months, he got them from his classroom at school. He has loved Diary of a Wimpy Kid and I Survived for the last couple years too.
He reads standalone books occasionally but is truly drawn into series. He currently has no interest in romance but a bit of discussion of crushes doesn’t bother him. He asked me about reading The Hunger Games series for the first time because I was rereading them this winter but hasn’t brought it up again lately. I am going to ask him to do the survey of reading, I am happy to see he reads on a daily basis. The Battle of the Books list is prompting him to read more standalone books this summer so he can be on his school’s team.
Very grateful for initiatives like BOB. I had several applicants who’ve done it for their schools and they were some of the strongest writers and readers. Series definitely have a stronghold especially with elementary readers!!
Thank you so much for sharing these insights and reviews, Afoma! I started writing middle grade and find that I still have so much to learn as I’ve seen the same reading patterns in my daughter as she is in her early teens. It’s something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but what you shared here 100% matches up with what I’ve been seeing and how I will be approaching my writing differently moving forward!
That makes me so happy to hear! 🙌🏽
This is incredibly comprehensive. Thank you, Afoma. I had already scheduled a revamped post on my blog (first written in 2019) called In "Celebration of the Verse" novel, but after reading this had to amend it. THANK YOU for showing the way we present poetry to kids matters. In our informing we are helping to form life-long opinions.
I'd love your thoughts if you're interested. It's scheduled to run June 9.
www.carolinestarrrose.com
Thanks, Caroline! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for it!
A fascinating read, thank you!
Thank you for reading :)
This was so insightful! Not surprised at all at the discernment of middle grade readers, and love that you gave them a way to share their thoughts and opinions! And super interesting that the most common books mentioned were backlist titles. It would be cool with the rise of Booktok to see more people getting as excited about new middle grade books as YA/NA and reaching that MG audience. But it also would be nice to find a way for the “gatekeepers” to explore more new titles. I remember as a kid riding my bike to the library weekly and browsing shelves. I found so many new and interesting books that way! Anyway, this was a really amazing read!
Yes, I think gatekeepers are so busy and overworked and underpaid and it’s hard to do extra work, although some are definitely trying!